| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Helen of Troy And Other Poems by Sara Teasdale: I loved too much to live. Go Sappho, go --
I hate your hands that beat so full of life,
Go, lest my hatred hurt you. I shall die,
But you will live to love and love again.
He might have loved some other spring than this;
I should have kept my life -- I let it go.
He would not love me now tho' Cypris bound
Her girdle round me. I am Death's, not Love's.
Go from me, Sappho, back to find the sun.
I am alone, alone. O Cyprian . . .
Love Songs
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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 Touchstone by Edith Wharton: triumphant air of penetration.
Hartly and Flamel laughed and Dresham shook his head. "No one
knows; not even the publishers; so they tell me at least."
"So they tell you to tell us," Hartly astutely amended; and Mrs.
Armiger added, with the appearance of carrying the argument a
point farther, "But even if HE'S dead and SHE'S dead, somebody
must have given the letters to the publishers."
"A little bird, probably," said Dresham, smiling indulgently on
her deduction.
"A little bird of prey then--a vulture, I should say--" another
man interpolated.
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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 An Unsocial Socialist by George Bernard Shaw: answered,
"Merely that the expanse of stars above us is not more
illimitable than my contempt for Miss Lindsay, nor brighter than
my hopes of Gertrude."
"Miss Lindsay always to you, if you please, Mr. Trefusis."
"Miss Lindsay never to me, but only to those who cannot see
through her to the soul within, which is Gertrude. There are a
thousand Miss Lindsays in the world, formal and false. There is
but one Gertrude."
"I am an unprotected girl, Mr. Trefusis, and you can call me what
you please."
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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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: presently fell to drinking, and was so well pleased, that in the night,
in the middle of his sleep, he cried out for joy three times, "I have
Themistocles the Athenian."
In the morning, calling together the chief of his court, he had
Themistocles brought before him, who expected no good of it, when he
saw, for example, the guards fiercely set against him as soon as they
learnt his name, and giving him ill language. As he came forward
towards the king, who was seated, the rest keeping silence, passing by
Roxanes, a commander of a thousand men, he heard him, with a slight
groan, say, without stirring out of his place, "You subtle Greek
serpent, the king's good genius hath brought thee hither." Yet, when he
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