| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Princess of Parms by Edgar Rice Burroughs: to the noiselessness of their approach, and, in common
with a multiplicity of legs, is a characteristic feature of the
fauna of Mars. The highest type of man and one other animal,
the only mammal existing on Mars, alone have well-formed
nails, and there are absolutely no hoofed animals in existence
there.
Behind this first charging demon trailed nineteen others,
similar in all respects, but, as I learned later, bearing
individual characteristics peculiar to themselves; precisely as
no two of us are identical although we are all cast in a similar
mold. This picture, or rather materialized nightmare, which
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Talisman by Walter Scott: benefit he had derived from the services of El Hakim, the two
unhappy creatures should be added to it as curiosities, which,
from their extremely grotesque appearance, and the shattered
state of their intellect, were gifts that might well pass between
sovereign and sovereign.
Richard had that day yet another female encounter to sustain; but
he advanced to it with comparative indifference, for Edith,
though beautiful and highly esteemed by her royal relative--nay,
although she had from his unjust suspicions actually sustained
the injury of which Berengaria only affected to complain--still
was neither Richard's wife nor mistress, and he feared her
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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 Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: And to refuse so beautiful a beggar
Were to lack both courtesy and love,
Touching your grievances, I promise this -
FIRST CITIZEN
Marry, he will lighten the taxes!
SECOND CITIZEN
Or a dole of bread, think you, for each man?
DUKE
That, on next Sunday, the Lord Cardinal
Shall, after Holy Mass, preach you a sermon
Upon the Beauty of Obedience.
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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 A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: said Pierre. Nothing troubled him. At ten years old the little cur
fought everybody, and amused himself with cutting the hens' necks off
and ripping up the pigs; in fact, you might say he wallowed in blood.
'He'll be a famous soldier,' said Cambremer, 'he's got the taste of
blood.' Now, you see," said the fisherman, "I can look back and
remember all that--and Cambremer, too," he added, after a pause. "By
the time Jacques Cambremer was fifteen or sixteen years of age he had
come to be--what shall I say?--a shark. He amused himself at Guerande,
and was after the girls at Savenay. Then he wanted money. He robbed
his mother, who didn't dare say a word to his father. Cambremer was an
honest man who'd have tramped fifty miles to return two sous that any
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