The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Ruling Passion by Henry van Dyke: is to be true to itself, in word and deed. Then, having spoken
truth and acted verity, it may call on honour to keep it pure and
steadfast.
If Falconer had trusted Claire, and showed her his heart without
reserve, would she not have understood him and helped him? It was
the pride of independence, the passion of self-reliance that drew
him away from her and divided his heart from hers in a dumb
isolation. But Claire,--was not she also in fault? Might she not
have known, should not she have taken for granted, the truth which
must have been so easy to read in Falconer's face, though he never
put it into words? And yet with her there was something very
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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 At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: canoe among the bushes through which I had stumbled just
prior to coming upon the beach.
I can tell you that it did not take me long to pull
that awkward craft down to the water and shove it far
out from shore. My experience with Ja had taught me that
if I were to steal another canoe I must be quick about
it and get far beyond the owner's reach as soon as possible.
I must have come out upon the opposite side of the
island from that at which Ja and I had entered it,
for the mainland was nowhere in sight. For a long time I
paddled around the shore, though well out, before I saw
 At the Earth's Core |