| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Message by Honore de Balzac: scarcely given a thought to the Count since we left him under the
peristyle; his indifference had surprised me, but my amazement
increased when we came back and found him seated philosophically
at table. He had eaten pretty nearly all the dinner, to the huge
delight of his little daughter; the child was smiling at her
father's flagrant infraction of the Countess' rules. The man's
odd indifference was explained to me by a mild altercation which
at once arose with the canon. The Count was suffering from some
serious complaint. I cannot remember now what it was, but his
medical advisers had put him on a very severe regimen, and the
ferocious hunger familiar to convalescents, sheer animal
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: be in a plough and with a whip, too. . . ."
The coachman simply looked at him with disdain, but did not utter
a word. And afterwards, while they were blowing up the fire at
the forge, the coachman talked while he smoked cigarettes. The
peasants learned from him various details: his employers were
wealthy people; his mistress, Elena Ivanovna, had till her
marriage lived in Moscow in a poor way as a governess; she was
kind-hearted, compassionate, and fond of helping the poor. On the
new estate, he told them, they were not going to plough or to
sow, but simply to live for their pleasure, live only to breathe
the fresh air. When he had finished and led the horses back a
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: clothes could not float away into that strange country of No-where
and Never-was, where, too, the things that she remembered seemed to
drift away--and to so nearly get lost, living only in dimming
memory.
These little girls in all sorts of clothes were real, and sure-
enough, and nobody could ever say of them, ``There are no such
little girls in the world,'' because sometimes when Bessie Bell would
get to thinking, and thinking about the strangeness of them, she
would almost wonder if she did not just remember them. When she
would give one just a little pinch to see if that one was a real
sure-enough little girl, why that little girl would say, ``Don't.''
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: peerage, like all who vote for the ministry. Indeed, it is promised
him," he added in an undertone. "After saving up a little capital my
brother joined a banking firm, and I hear he has just effected a
speculation in Brazil which may make him a millionaire. You see me in
the highest spirits at having been able, by my diplomatic connections,
to contribute to his success. I am impatiently expecting a dispatch
from the Brazilian Legation, which will help to lift the cloud from
his brow. What do you think of him?"
"Well, your brother's face does not look to me like that of a man
busied with money matters."
The young attache shot a scrutinizing glance at the apparently calm
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