| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: the fame of his valour without the trouble of fighting for it.
What need you of purse or pouch? You may sing before thieves.
Pedlars, pedlars: wandering from door to door with the small
ware of lies and cajolery: exploits for carpet-knights;
honesty for courtiers; truth for monks, and chastity for nuns:
a good saleable stock that costs the vender nothing, defies wear
and tear, and when it has served a hundred customers is as plentiful
and as marketable as ever. But, sirrahs, I'll none of your balderdash.
You pass not hence without clink of brass, or I'll knock your
musical noddles together till they ring like a pair of cymbals.
That will be a new tune for your minstrelships."
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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 Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: "If it be correct, I suppose we must conclude that the enormous disc
we observed on the night of the catastrophe was the comet itself;
and the velocity with which it was traveling must have been
so great that it was hardly arrested at all by the attraction
of the earth."
"Plausible enough," answered Count Timascheff; "and it is to this comet
that our scientific friend here has given the name of Gallia."
It still remained a puzzle to them all why the astronomer should apparently
be interested in the comet so much more than in the new little world
in which their strange lot was cast.
"Can you explain this?" asked the count.
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