| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: The injury done by gas is so generally acknowledged by the heads
of our national libraries, that it is strictly excluded from
their domains, although the danger from explosion and fire,
even if the results of combustion were innocuous, would be
sufficient cause for its banishment.
The electric light has been in use for some months in the Reading Room
of the British Museum, and is a great boon to the readers.
The light is not quite equally diffused, and you must choose particular
positions if you want to work happily. There is a great objection, too,
in the humming fizz which accompanies the action of the electricity.
There is a still greater objection when small pieces of hot
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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 The Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: losses."
"Ha! I sha'n't go to the poorhouse for want of a thousand francs or
so!" replied the old-iron dealer.
From the day when Veronique lost the soft beauty which made her
girlish face the admiration of all who saw it, Pere Sauviat redoubled
in activity. His business became so prosperous that he now went to
Paris several times a year. Every one felt that he wanted to
compensate his daughter by force of money for what he called her "loss
of profit." When Veronique was fifteen years old a change was made in
the internal manners and customs of the household. The father and
mother went upstairs in the evenings to their daughter's apartment,
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