| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: Germany, where they spent the greater part of two years. Returning to
Paris in November, 1837, the countess entered society for the first
time as a married woman during the winter which had just ended, and
she then became aware of the existence, half-suppressed and wholly
dumb but very useful, of a species of factotum who was personally
invisible, named Paz,--spelt thus, but pronounced "Patz."
"Monsieur le capitaine Paz begs Madame la comtesse to excuse him,"
said the footman, returning. "He is at the stables; as soon as he has
changed his dress Comte Paz will present himself to Madame."
"What was he doing at the stables?"
"He was showing them how to groom Madame's horse," said the man. "He
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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 Pupil by Henry James: tutor's. He leaned against him looking oft at the sea again and
swinging his long thin legs.
"Don't kick my shins," said Pemberton while he reflected "Hang it,
I can't complain of them to the child!"
"There's another reason, too," Morgan went on, keeping his legs
still.
"Another reason for what?"
"Besides their not being your parents."
"I don't understand you," said Pemberton.
"Well, you will before long. All right!"
He did understand fully before long, but he made a fight even with
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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 Troll Garden and Selected Stories by Willa Cather: a steel trap. Yet about those coarse features there were deep,
rugged furrows, the scars of many a hand-to-hand struggle with the
weakness of the flesh, and about that drooping lip were sharp,
strenuous lines that had conquered it and taught it to pray. Over
those seamed cheeks there was a certain pallor, a greyness caught
from many a vigil. It was as though, after Nature had done her
worst with that face, some fine chisel had gone over it, chastening
and almost transfiguring it. Tonight, as his muscles twitched with
emotion, and the perspiration dropped from his hair and chin, there
was a certain convincing power in the man. For Asa Skinner was a
man possessed of a belief, of that sentiment of the sublime before
The Troll Garden and Selected Stories |
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 Hermione's Little Group of Serious Thinkers by Don Marquis: see the Spiritual Significance of the Lovely Garbage
Scow!"
I found a Glue Factory, a Free Untrammeled
Glue Factory! I was expressing itself. It was
asserting its individuality. It was saying to the
Blind Complacent Pillars of Polite Society: "My
aroma is not your aroma, but my aroma is my
own!" Oh, the Courageous Glue Factory, the Free,
Unfettered Glue Factory! A thousand Glue Fac-
tories, from Main to Oregon, are thus rebuking
Class Prejudice and Bourgeois Smugness. Like
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