| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: So runn'st thou after that which flies from thee,
Whilst I thy babe chase thee afar behind;
But if thou catch thy hope, turn back to me,
And play the mother's part, kiss me, be kind;
So will I pray that thou mayst have thy 'Will,'
If thou turn back and my loud crying still.
CXLIV
Two loves I have of comfort and despair,
Which like two spirits do suggest me still:
The better angel is a man right fair,
The worser spirit a woman colour'd ill.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: Consuesse enim deos immortales, quo gravius homines ex commutatione rerum
doleant, quos pro scelere eorum ulcisci velint, his secundiores interdum
res et diuturniorem impunitatem concedere. Cum ea ita sint, tamen, si
obsides ab iis sibi dentur, uti ea quae polliceantur facturos intellegat,
et si Haeduis de iniuriis quas ipsis sociisque eorum intulerint, item si
Allobrogibus satis faciunt, sese cum iis pacem esse facturum. Divico
respondit: ita Helvetios a maioribus suis institutos esse uti obsides
accipere, non dare, consuerint; eius rem populum Romanum esse testem. Hoc
responso dato discessit.
Postero die castra ex eo loco movent. Idem facit Caesar equitatumque
omnem, ad numerum quattuor milium, quem ex omni provincia et Haeduis atque
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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 Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: marriage, and appointed it in November. In October Aunt Eliza sent
for me to come back to Bond Street and spend a week. She had some
fine marking to do, she wrote. While there I noticed a restlessness
in her which I had never before observed, and conferred with Mrs.
Roll on the matter. "She do be awake nights a deal, and that's the
reason," Mrs. Roll said. Her manner was the same in other respects.
She said she would not give me any thing for my wedding outfit, but
she paid my fare from Waterbury and back.
She could not spare me to go out, she told Mr. Uxbridge, and in
consequence I saw little of him while there.
In November we were married. Aunt Eliza was not at the wedding,
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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 Lesson of the Master by Henry James: most is the incorruptible silence of Fame. I've squared her, you
may say, for my little hour - but what's my little hour? Don't
imagine for a moment," the Master pursued, "that I'm such a cad as
to have brought you down here to abuse or to complain of my wife to
you. She's a woman of distinguished qualities, to whom my
obligations are immense; so that, if you please, we'll say nothing
about her. My boys - my children are all boys - are straight and
strong, thank God, and have no poverty of growth about them, no
penury of needs. I receive periodically the most satisfactory
attestation from Harrow, from Oxford, from Sandhurst - oh we've
done the best for them! - of their eminence as living thriving
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