| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Edition of The Ambassadors by Henry James: red-haired and long-legged, they were quaint and queer and dear
and droll; they made the place resound with the vernacular, which
he had never known so marked as when figuring for the chosen
language, he must suppose, of contemporary art. They twanged with
a vengeance the aesthetic lyre--they drew from it wonderful airs.
This aspect of their life had an admirable innocence; and he
looked on occasion at Maria Gostrey to see to what extent that
element reached her. She gave him however for the hour, as she had
given him the previous day, no further sign than to show how she
dealt with boys; meeting them with the air of old Parisian
practice that she had for every one, for everything, in turn.
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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 Hidden Masterpiece by Honore de Balzac: "Ah! do you want something of me?"
"Yes."
"If you want me to pose as I did the other day," she said, with a
little pouting air, "I will not do it. Your eyes say nothing to me,
then. You look at me, but you do not think of me."
"Would you like me to copy another woman?"
"Perhaps," she answered, "if she were very ugly."
"Well," continued Poussin, in a grave tone, "if to make me a great
painter it were necessary to pose to some one else--"
"You are testing me," she interrupted; "you know well that I would not
do it."
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