| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: a few polite words, Mademoiselle de Langeais' invitation to partake of
the little collation made ready for him.
After the 9th Thermidor, the Sisters and the Abbe de Marolles could go
about Paris without the least danger. The first time that the abbe
went out he walked to a perfumer's shop at the sign of The Queen of
Roses, kept by the Citizen Ragon and his wife, court perfumers. The
Ragons had been faithful adherents of the Royalist cause; it was
through their means that the Vendean leaders kept up a correspondence
with the Princes and the Royalist Committee in Paris. The abbe, in the
ordinary dress of the time, was standing on the threshold of the shop
--which stood between Saint Roch and the Rue des Frondeurs--when 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 Domestic Peace by Honore de Balzac: print of a book. From the depths of her large arm-chair, completely
filled by the flow of her dress, the coquette of the past, while
talking to a diplomate who had sought her out to hear the anecdotes
she told so cleverly, was admiring herself in the younger coquette;
she felt kindly to her, seeing how bravely she disguised her annoyance
and grief of heart. Madame de Vaudremont, in fact, felt as much sorrow
as she feigned cheerfulness; she had believed that she had found in
Martial a man of talent on whose support she could count for adorning
her life with all the enchantment of power; and at this moment she
perceived her mistake, as injurious to her reputation as to her good
opinion of herself. In her, as in other women of that time, the
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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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: "Bishop," was his unexpected reply, "you're not near so much of a
dandy as you think you are."
XVIII
Affairs went thus for a week. Orde was much at the Bishop
residence, where he was cordially received by the general, where he
gained an occasional half-hour with Carroll, and where he was almost
ignored by Mrs. Bishop in her complete self-absorption. Indeed, it
is to be doubted whether he attained any real individuality to that
lady, who looked on all the world outside her family as useful or
useless to the church.
In the course of the happy moments he had alone with Carroll, he
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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 Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: case of an expected election, and saw no amusement in the duties
of a road trustee, a commissioner of supply, or even in the
magisterial functions of the bench. I had begun to take some
taste for reading; and a domiciliation in the country must remove
me from the use of books, excepting the small subscription
library, in which the very book which you want is uniformly sure
to be engaged.
I resolved, therefore, to make the Scottish metropolis my regular
resting-place, reserving to myself to take occasionally those
excursions which, spite of all I have said against mail-coaches,
Mr. Piper has rendered so easy. Friend of our life and of our
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