| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lin McLean by Owen Wister: the boy, coming to her with an impulse of affection. "Why won't you if he
don't mind?"
She continued to parry him, but this was not a very smooth start for
eight in the morning. Moments of lull there were, when the telegraph
called her to the front room, and Billy's young mind shifted to inquiries
about the cipher alphabet. And she gained at least an hour teaching him
to read various words by the sound. At dinner, too, he was refreshingly
silent. But such silences are unsafe, and the weather was still bad. Four
o'clock found them much where they had been at eight.
"Please tell me why you won't leave Lin marry you." He was at the window,
kicking the wall.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: From hence we directed our course for the West Indies, steering
away S. and S. by E. for about twenty days together, sometimes
little or no wind at all; when we met with another subject for our
humanity to work upon, almost as deplorable as that before.
CHAPTER II - INTERVENING HISTORY OF COLONY
IT was in the latitude of 27 degrees 5 minutes N., on the 19th day
of March 1694-95, when we spied a sail, our course SE. and by S.
We soon perceived it was a large vessel, and that she bore up to
us, but could not at first know what to make of her, till, after
coming a little nearer, we found she had lost her main-topmast,
fore-mast, and bowsprit; and presently she fired a gun as a signal
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: was decided by the engagement which followed. For when the Lacedaemonians
had gone on their way, leaving the Boeotians, whom they were aiding, on the
third day after the battle of Tanagra, our countrymen conquered at
Oenophyta, and righteously restored those who had been unrighteously
exiled. And they were the first after the Persian war who fought on behalf
of liberty in aid of Hellenes against Hellenes; they were brave men, and
freed those whom they aided, and were the first too who were honourably
interred in this sepulchre by the state. Afterwards there was a mighty
war, in which all the Hellenes joined, and devastated our country, which
was very ungrateful of them; and our countrymen, after defeating them in a
naval engagement and taking their leaders, the Spartans, at Sphagia, when
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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 Message by Honore de Balzac: that the fatal key would be my passport in his mother's house. It
troubled him that he was powerless to utter a single word to
thank me, for of my wish to serve him he had no doubt. He looked
wistfully at me for a moment, then his eyelids drooped in token
of farewell, and his head sank, and he died. His death was the
only fatal accident caused by the overturn.
"But it was partly his own fault," the coachman said to me.
At La Charite, I executed the poor fellow's dying wishes. His
mother was away from home, which in a manner was fortunate for
me. Nevertheless, I had to assuage the grief of an old woman-
servant, who staggered back at the tidings of her young master's
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