| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: We now heard the hurried steps of our guide; he had put on his Sunday
clothes. We addressed a few ordinary words to him; he seemed to think
that our mood had changed, and with that reserve that comes of misery,
he kept silence. Though from time to time we pressed each other's
hands that we might feel the mutual flow of our ideas and impressions,
we walked along for half an hour in silence, either because we were
oppressed by the heat which rose in waves from the burning sands, or
because the difficulty of walking absorbed our attention. Like
children, we held each other's hands; in fact, we could hardly have
made a dozen steps had we walked arm in arm. The path which led to
Batz was not so much as traced. A gust of wind was enough to efface
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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 La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: honorable means of gaining a livelihood, and the necessity of a
training. Then she told him that one of the chief causes of her
sadness and her tears was the thought that, on the morrow of her
death, he and Marie would be left almost resourceless, with but a
slender stock of money, and no friend but God.
"How quick I must be about learning!" cried Louis, giving her a
piteous, searching look.
"Oh! how happy I am!" she said, showering kisses and tears on her son.
"He understands me!--Louis," she went on, "you will be your brother's
guardian, will you not? You promise me that? You are no longer a
child!"
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