The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Confidence by Henry James: terrace that abutted upon the city-wall, where three or four
superannuated objects seemed to slumber in the sunshine--
the open door of an empty church, with a faded fresco
exposed to the air in the arch above it, and an ancient
beggar-woman sitting beside it on a three-legged stool.
The little terrace had an old polished parapet, about as high
as a man's breast, above which was a view of strange,
sad-colored hills. Outside, to the left, the wall of the town made
an outward bend, and exposed its rugged and rusty complexion.
There was a smooth stone bench set into the wall of the church,
on which Longueville had rested for an hour, observing the
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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 Ursula by Honore de Balzac: or without comparing her miserable lot with the prospects the doctor
had promised, and of which he had often spoken to her, La Bougival.
"It is not for myself I speak," she said, "but is it likely that
monsieur, good and kind as he was, would have died without leaving me
the merest trifle?--"
"Am I not here?" replied Ursula, forbidding La Bougival to say another
word on the subject.
She could not endure to soil the dear and tender memories that
surrounded that noble head--a sketch of which in black and white hung
in her little salon--with thoughts of selfish interest. To her fresh
and beautiful imagination that sketch sufficed to make her SEE her
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