| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: charged with shell. Nevertheless, a bold thought brought daylight to
his soul and sealed up the source of the cold sweat which sprang forth
on his brow. Like men driven to bay, who defy death and offer their
body to the smiter, so he, seeing in this merely a tragic episode,
resolved to play his part with honor to the last.
"The day before yesterday the Arabs would have killed me, perhaps," he
said; so considering himself as good as dead already, he waited
bravely, with excited curiosity, the awakening of his enemy.
When the sun appeared, the panther suddenly opened her eyes; then she
put out her paws with energy, as if to stretch them and get rid of
cramp. At last she yawned, showing the formidable apparatus of her
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from American Notes by Rudyard Kipling: railway of death that had nearly shunted me through the window.
Each man carried a knife, the sleeves of his shirt were cut off
at the elbows, and from bosom to heel he was blood-red.
Beyond this perspective was a column of steam, and beyond that
was where I worked my awe-struck way, unwilling to touch beam or
wall. The atmosphere was stifling as a night in the rains by
reason of the steam and the crowd. I climbed to the beginning of
things and, perched upon a narrow beam, overlooked very nearly
all the pigs ever bred in Wisconsin. They had just been shot out
of the mouth of the viaduct and huddled together in a large pen.
Thence they were flicked persuasively, a few at a time, into 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 Paz by Honore de Balzac: Paz, on whom all the burden of these parade days fell.
"Good!" thought he, as he heard the last carriages driving away at two
in the morning; "it was only the caprice or the curiosity of a
Parisian woman that made her want to see me."
After that the captain went back to his ordinary habits and ways,
which had been somewhat upset by this incident. Diverted by her
Parisian occupations, Clementine appeared to have forgotten Paz. It
must not be thought an easy matter to reign a queen over fickle Paris.
Does any one suppose that fortunes alone are risked in the great game?
The winters are to fashionable women what a campaign once was to the
soldiers of the Empire. What works of art and genius are expended on a
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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 Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: did so, shouldered the axe, and began to walk away; but I
called him back, walked up to him, and took the axe out of
his unresisting hands. The boy is in all things so good,
that I can scarce say I was afraid; only I felt it had to be
stopped ere he could work himself up by dancing to some
craziness. Our house boys protested they were not afraid;
all I know is they were all watching him round the back door
and did not follow me till I had the axe. As for the out
boys, who were working with Fanny in the native house, they
thought it a very bad business, and made no secret of their
fears.
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