| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: influential connections. It was an excellent match. But he did
not like the work he had to do now. He felt himself dependent on
too many subordinates and too many masters. The near presence of
that strange emotional phenomenon called public opinion weighed
upon his spirits, and alarmed him by its irrational nature. No
doubt that from ignorance he exaggerated to himself its power for
good and evil - especially for evil; and the rough east winds of
the English spring (which agreed with his wife) augmented his
general mistrust of men's motives and of the efficiency of their
organisation. The futility of office work especially appalled him
on those days so trying to his sensitive liver.
 The Secret Agent |
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 A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: bread and water, which is brought to him every morning by his
brother's daughter, a little lass about twelve years old to whom he
has left his property, a pretty creature, gentle as a lamb, a nice
little girl, so pleasant. She has such blue eyes, long as THAT," he
added, marking a line on his thumb, "and hair like the cherubim. When
you ask her: 'Tell me, Perotte' (That's how we say Pierette in these
parts," he remarked, interrupting himself; "she is vowed to Saint
Pierre; Cambremer is named Pierre, and he was her godfather)--'Tell
me, Perotte, what does your uncle say to you?'--'He says nothing to
me, nothing.'--'Well, then, what does he do to you?' 'He kisses me on
the forehead, Sundays.'--'Are you afraid of him?'--'Ah, no, no; isn't
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