| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: Again a soft ripple of mirth swept over them.
"Especially a baby who never cries," said Amelia.
"No, he never does cry," said Eudora, demurely.
They laughed again. Then Amelia rose and left the room to get
the tea-things. The old serving-woman who had lived with them
for many years was suffering from rheumatism, and was cared for
by her daughter in the little cottage across the road from the
Lancaster house. Her husband and grandson were the man and boy
at work in the grounds. The three sisters took care of
themselves and their house with the elegant ease and lack of
fluster of gentlewomen born and bred. Miss Amelia, bringing in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris: themselves and prepare for what was coming. Captain Jack ushered
them into what was either the parlor, office, or sitting-room of
the station, and left them with the words:
"Just make yourselves comfortable here, an' I'll go fetch the
little woman."
No sooner had he gone than the two turned to each other.
"Well!"
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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 Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: Rome. And how much more doth it please the pious curiosity of a
Christian, to see that place, on which the blessed Saviour of the world
was pleased to humble himself, and to take our nature upon him, and to
converse with men: to see Mount Sion, Jerusalem, and the very
sepulchre of our Lord Jesus! How may it beget and heighten the zeal of
a Christian, to see the devotions that are daily paid to him at that place!
Gentlemen, lest I forget myself, I will stop here, and remember you,
that but for my element of water, the inhabitants of this poor island
must remain ignorant that such things ever were, or that any of them
have yet a being.
Gentlemen, I might both enlarge and lose myself in such like
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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 New Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson: With silent voices in the Spring.
Hence I not fear to yield my breath,
Since all is still unchanged by death;
Since in some pleasant valley I may be,
Clod beside clod, or tree by tree,
Long ages hence, with her I love this hour;
And feel a lively joy to share
With her the sun and rain and air,
To taste her quiet neighbourhood
As the dumb things of field and wood,
The clod, the tree, and starry flower,
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