| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: repatriation, found himself feeling; in which case he would have
lived longer than is often allotted to man. It would have taken a
century, he repeatedly said to himself, and said also to Alice
Staverton, it would have taken a longer absence and a more averted
mind than those even of which he had been guilty, to pile up the
differences, the newnesses, the queernesses, above all the
bignesses, for the better or the worse, that at present assaulted
his vision wherever he looked.
The great fact all the while, however, had been the
incalculability; since he HAD supposed himself, from decade to
decade, to be allowing, and in the most liberal and intelligent
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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 Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: horn, cut and finished for powder, and with it a dirty
game-bag. Strings of red peppers were strung along
each of the walls, with here and there bunches of
popcorn in the ears. A pile of black walnuts lay in
one corner of the cabin and a pile of hickory nuts in
another.
A three-legged wooden stool and a split-bottom
chair stood beside the table, and a haircloth couch,
which looked as if it had been saved from the Ark, was
pushed near the wall beside the door.
Across this couch was thrown a ragged patchwork
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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 Hellenica by Xenophon: the constitution in vogue at Argos, for which they had ltitle
appetite, while in their own city they wielded less power than the
resident aliens. So that a party sprang up among them whose creed was,
that life was not worth living on such terms: their endeavour must be
to make their fatherland once more the Corinth of old days--to restore
freedom to their city, purified from the murderer and his pollution
and fairly rooted in good order and legality.[6] It was a design worth
the venture: if they succeeded they would become the saviours of their
country; if not--why, in the effort to grasp the fairest flower of
happiness, they would but overreach, and find instead a glorious
termination to existence.
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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 Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: Wherein I should your great deserts repay,
Forgot upon your dearest love to call,
Whereto all bonds do tie me day by day;
That I have frequent been with unknown minds,
And given to time your own dear-purchas'd right;
That I have hoisted sail to all the winds
Which should transport me farthest from your sight.
Book both my wilfulness and errors down,
And on just proof surmise, accumulate;
Bring me within the level of your frown,
But shoot not at me in your waken'd hate;
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