| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: And what will he make of you?
A physician, he said.
And if you were resolved to go to Polycleitus the Argive, or Pheidias the
Athenian, and were intending to give them money, and some one had asked
you: What are Polycleitus and Pheidias? and why do you give them this
money?--how would you have answered?
I should have answered, that they were statuaries.
And what will they make of you?
A statuary, of course.
Well now, I said, you and I are going to Protagoras, and we are ready to
pay him money on your behalf. If our own means are sufficient, and we can
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: too. Our friend treated us the next day with a dish of large
lobsters, and I being curious to know the value of such things, and
having freedom enough with him to inquire, I found that for 6d. or
8d. they bought as good lobsters there as would have cost in London
3s. to 3s. 6d. each.
In observing the coming in of those pilchards, as above, we found
that out at sea, in the offing, beyond the mouth of the harbour,
there was a whole army of porpoises, which, as they told us,
pursued the pilchards, and, it is probable, drove them into the
harbour, as above. The school, it seems, drove up the river a
great way, even as high as Totnes Bridge, as we heard afterwards;
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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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: for a chance to ask after some absent comrade. On every side he
was being invited to drink. Never before had the Klondike thus
opened its arms to a che-cha-qua. All Dawson was humming. Such a
series of catastrophes had never occurred in its history. Every
man of note who had gone south in the spring had been wiped out.
The cabins vomited forth their occupants. Wild-eyed men hurried
down from the creeks and gulches to seek out this man who had told
a tale of such disaster. The Russian half-breed wife of Bettles
sought the fireplace, inconsolable, and rocked back and forth, and
ever and anon flung white wood-ashes upon her raven hair. The
flag at the Barracks flopped dismally at half-mast. Dawson
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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 Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: "Drink," I said, presenting him the wine.
He raised it to his lips with a leer. He paused and nodded to
me familiarly, while his bells jingled.
"I drink," he said, "to the buried that repose around us."
"And I to your long life."
He again took my arm, and we proceeded.
"These vaults," he said, "are extensive."
"The Montresors," I replied, "were a great and numerous
family."
"I forget your arms."
"A huge human foot d'or, in a field azure; the foot crushes a
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