| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: and reached a plateau about fifty feet beneath me. He was
followed by a number of Zulus, but took refuge in a little cave
whence he shot three or four of them; then his cartridges were
exhausted and I heard the savages speaking in praise of
him--dead. I think he was the last to die on the field of
Isandhlwana.
The looting of the camp began; it was a terrible scene. The oxen
and those of the horses that could be caught were driven away,
except certain of the former which were harnessed to the guns and
some of the wagons and, as I afterwards learned, taken to Ulundi
in proof of victory. Then the slain were stripped and Kaffirs
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: If it's a client it will look more respectable than if I
appeared.
PRAED. Certainly. [He goes to the door and opens it. Frank
sits down in Vivie's chair to scribble a note]. My dear Kitty:
come in: come in.
[Mrs Warren comes in, looking apprehensively around for Vivie.
She has done her best to make herself matronly and dignified.
The brilliant hat is replaced by a sober bonnet, and the gay
blouse covered by a costly black silk mantle. She is pitiably
anxious and ill at ease: evidently panic-stricken.]
MRS WARREN [to Frank] What! Y o u r e here, are you?
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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 The Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: lips, he has dealt a deadly wound to /her/, his wife in truth, whom he
forsook for a social chimera,--then he must either die or take refuge
in a materialistic, selfish, and heartless philosophy, from which
impassioned souls shrink in horror.
As for Mme. de Beauseant, she doubtless did not imagine that her
friend's despair could drive him to suicide, when he had drunk deep of
love for nine years. Possibly she may have thought that she alone was
to suffer. At any rate, she did quite rightly to refuse the most
humiliating of all positions; a wife may stoop for weighty social
reasons to a kind of compromise which a mistress is bound to hold in
abhorrence, for in the purity of her passion lies all its
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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 Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: alone. Madame Bridau was very warmly received by her brother, to whom
Flore had taught his lesson. The old man was in bed, quite ill from
the excesses of the night before. As Agathe, under the circumstances,
could scarcely begin at once to speak of family matters, Max thought
it proper and magnanimous to leave the brother and sister alone
together. The calculation was a good one. Poor Agathe found her
brother so ill that she would not deprive him of Madame Brazier's
care.
"Besides," she said to the old bachelor, "I wish to know a person to
whom I am grateful for the happiness of my brother."
These words gave evident pleasure to the old man, who rang for Madame
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