| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: only just met Vivie for the first time?
PRAED. Yes.
FRANK [rhapsodically] Then you can have no idea what a girl she
is. Such character! Such sense! And her cleverness! Oh, my
eye, Praed, but I can tell you she is clever! And--need I add?--
she loves me.
CROFTS [putting his head out of the window] I say, Praed: what
are you about? Do come along. [He disappears].
FRANK. Hallo! Sort of chap that would take a prize at a dog
show, aint he? Who's he?
PRAED. Sir George Crofts, an old friend of Mrs Warren's. I
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: Mountains, did not exceed four hundred and fifty miles, a flight
which would have been easy for the "Terror."
Yes, this idea more and more took possession of me. It crowded out a
hundred other unsupported suggestions. Did not this explain the
nature of the bond which existed between the Great Eyrie and the
letter which I had received with our commander's initials? And the
threats against me if I renewed the ascent! And the espionage to
which I had been subjected! And all the phenomena of which the Great
Eyrie had been the theater, were they not to be attributed to this
same cause--though what lay behind the phenomena was not yet clear?
Yes, the Great Eyrie! The Great Eyrie!
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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 Meno by Plato: one the nature of virtue as a whole through some unexplained portion of
virtue, or anything at all in that fashion; we should only have to ask over
again the old question, What is virtue? Am I not right?
MENO: I believe that you are.
SOCRATES: Then begin again, and answer me, What, according to you and your
friend Gorgias, is the definition of virtue?
MENO: O Socrates, I used to be told, before I knew you, that you were
always doubting yourself and making others doubt; and now you are casting
your spells over me, and I am simply getting bewitched and enchanted, and
am at my wits' end. And if I may venture to make a jest upon you, you seem
to me both in your appearance and in your power over others to be very like
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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 Juana by Honore de Balzac: beautiful, that he cannot magnify or embellish her; he has only the
fatal power to blast her and drag her down into his own mire.
Montefiore waited for a later and more somnolent hour of the night;
then, in spite of his reflections, he descended the stairs without
boots, armed with his pistols, moving step by step, stopping to
question the silence, putting forth his hands, measuring the stairs,
peering into the darkness, and ready at the slightest incident to fly
back into his room. The Italian had put on his handsomest uniform; he
had perfumed his black hair, and now shone with the particular
brilliancy which dress and toilet bestow upon natural beauty. Under
such circumstances most men are as feminine as a woman.
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