| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery: when we grow up that Diana will get married and go away and leave
me. And oh, what shall I do? I hate her husband--I just hate
him furiously. I've been imagining it all out--the wedding and
everything--Diana dressed in snowy garments, with a veil, and
looking as beautiful and regal as a queen; and me the bridesmaid,
with a lovely dress too, and puffed sleeves, but with a breaking
heart hid beneath my smiling face. And then bidding Diana
goodbye-e-e--" Here Anne broke down entirely and wept with
increasing bitterness.
Marilla turned quickly away to hide her twitching face; but it
was no use; she collapsed on the nearest chair and burst into
 Anne of Green Gables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: I set out on my trip, and reached here in the evening - (here?
I do not know where I am), that is, I set out for Vienna, and I know
that I reached the Northern Railway station there in safety.
"I was cold and felt a little faint - and then he offered me the
tea - and what happened after that? Where am I? The paper that
they gave me may have been a day or two old or more. And to-day is
Sunday - is it the first Sunday since my departure from home? I do
not know. I know only this, that I set out on the 18th of November
to visit my kind old guardian, and to have a last consultation with
him before my coming of age. And I know also that I have fallen
into the hands of some one who has an interest in my disappearance.
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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 Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: any."
"Ha!" snorted the traveller, "then I'll go straight to Monsieur
Vernier and thank him."
And Gaudissart departed, boiling over with rage, to shake the ex-dyer,
whom he found in his salon, laughing with a company of friends to whom
he had already recounted the tale.
"Monsieur," said the prince of travellers, darting a savage glance at
his enemy, "you are a scoundrel and a blackguard; and under pain of
being thought a turn-key,--a species of being far below a galley-
slave,--you will give me satisfaction for the insult you dared to
offer me in sending me to a man whom you knew to be a lunatic! Do you
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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 Koran: lest your works become vain, while ye do not perceive.
Verily, those who lower their voice before the Apostle of God,
they are those whose hearts God has proved for piety, for them is
forgiveness and a mighty hire.
Verily, those who cry out to thee from behind the inner chambers,
most of them have no sense; but did they wait until thou come out to
them, it were better for them;-but God is forgiving, merciful.
O ye who believe! if there come to you a sinner with an information,
then discriminate, lest ye fall upon a people in ignorance and on
the morrow repent of what ye have done.
And know that among you is the Apostle of God; if he should obey you
 The Koran |