| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: spectacled, dry, but not ungenial looking man.
"Here, Gregg," cried my grandfather. "Just a question: What
has Aadam got to do with my will?"
"I'm afraid I don't quite understand," said the lawyer, staring.
"What has he got to do with it?" repeated the old man, smiting
with his fist upon the arm of his chair. "Is my money mine's, or
is it Aadam's? Can Aadam interfere?"
"O, I see," said Mr. Gregg. "Certainly not. On the marriage of
both of your children a certain sum was paid down and
accepted in full of legitim. You have surely not forgotten the
circumstance, Mr. Loudon?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: to extort twenty thousand francs from Monsieur le comte for Messrs.
Gravelot, on condition that they shared them with me?' If your
adversaries consented to that, Monsieur le comte, I should return you
ten thousand francs; you lose only the other ten, you save
appearances, and the suit is quashed."
"You are a fine fellow, Sibilet," said the general, taking his hand
and shaking it. "If you can manage the future as well as you do the
present, I'll call you the prince of stewards."
"As to the future," said Sibilet, "you won't die of hunger if no
timber is cut for two or three years. Let us begin by putting proper
keepers in the woods. Between now and then things will flow as the
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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 Frankenstein by Mary Shelley: reiterating his tyrannical mandate.
"A few days after, the Turk entered his daughter's apartment and
told her hastily that he had reason to believe that his residence
at Leghorn had been divulged and that he should speedily be delivered
up to the French government; he had consequently hired a vessel to
convey him to Constantinople, for which city he should sail in a few hours.
He intended to leave his daughter under the care of a confidential servant,
to follow at her leisure with the greater part of his property,
which had not yet arrived at Leghorn.
"When alone, Safie resolved in her own mind the plan of conduct
that it would become her to pursue in this emergency. A residence
Frankenstein |
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 Fisherman's Luck by Henry van Dyke: blue and gold and red. A pair of the same kind, one weighing two
pounds and the other a pound and three quarters, were taken by
careful fishing down the lower end of the pool, and then we rowed
home through the dusk, pleasantly convinced that there is no virtue
more certainly rewarded than the patience of anglers, and entirely
willing to put up with a cold supper and a mild reproof for the sake
of sport.
Of course we could not resist the temptation to show those fish to
the neighbours. But, equally of course, we evaded the request to
give precise information as to the precise place where they were
caught. Indeed, I fear that there must have been something confused
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