The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: here you need not, like the dolphin in the fable, carry a monkey on
your shoulders; here you will be understood, and will not risk staking
your gold pieces against base metal.
Here, again, secrets neatly betrayed, and talk, light or deep, play
and eddy, changing their aspect and hue at every phrase. Eager
criticism and crisp anecdotes lead on from one to the next. All eyes
are listening, a gesture asks a question, and an expressive look gives
the answer. In short, and in a word, everything is wit and mind.
The phenomenon of speech, which, when duly studied and well handled,
is the power of the actor and the story-teller, had never so
completely bewitched me. Nor was I alone under the influence of its
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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 Case of the Registered Letter by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: life as would be mine after this.
But I do not wish to die quite in vain. There are two men who have
touched my life, who need the lesson my death can teach them. These
men are Albert Graumann and the prosecuting attorney Gustav Schmidt,
the man who once condemned me so cruelly. His present position
would make him the representative of the state in a murder trial,
and I know his opinions too well not to foresee that he would declare
Graumann guilty because of the circumstantial evidence which will be
against him. My letter, given to the Presiding Judge after the
Attorney has made his speech, will cause him humiliation, will ruin
his brilliant arguments and cast ridicule upon him.
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