| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dreams & Dust by Don Marquis: Ah, Song! we sped our bold imaginings
As far as yon red planet's triple rings;--
O Life! O Love! I followed, followed thee!
There waits one word to end my journeyings:
"Lo, I am Death; I bid thee follow me!"
DREAMS AND DUST
SELVES
My dust in ruined Babylon
Is blown along the level plain,
And songs of mine at dawn have soared
Above the blue Sicilian main.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mother by Owen Wister: not so clear to Ethel. She said that you could not monopolise hens. That
they would always be laying eggs and putting it in the power of
competitors to hatch them by incubators. Nor did she have confidence in
the Pasteurised Feeder. 'Even if you get the parents to adopt it,' she
said, 'you cannot get the children. If they do not like the taste of the
milk as it comes out of the bottle through the Feeder, they will simply
not take it.'"
"'Well,' I answered, 'old Mrs. Beverly is holding on to hers.'"
"When I said this, Ethel sat with her mouth tight. Then she opened it and
said: 'I hate that woman.'"
"'Hate her? Why, you have never so much as laid eyes on her.'"
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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 Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: countess's intervention, but you don't know her, and you can't give me
any information about her--is that so?"
"At present I can't," replied Cerizet, "but I'll find out about her;
for the whole proceeding is rather cavalier towards me; but this
employment of two agents only shows you how desirable you are to the
family."
At this moment the door of the room was opened cautiously, a woman's
head appeared, and a voice, which was instantly recognized by la
Peyrade, said, addressing the copying-clerk:--
"Ah! excuse me! I see monsieur is busy. Could I say a word to monsieur
when he is alone?"
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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 Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: worship the same God, like Carriere at Nantes, and see what grace
and gifts he too might obtain at that altar?
But why so cruel? Because, with many of these men, I more than
suspect, there were wrongs to be avenged deeper than any wrongs done
to the sixth sense of vanity. Wrongs common to them, and to a great
portion of the respectable middle class, and much of the lower
class: but wrongs to which they and their families, being most in
contact with the noblesse, would be especially exposed; namely,
wrongs to women.
Everyone who knows the literature of that time, must know what I
mean: what had gone on for more than a century, it may be more than
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