| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: did not succeed this night, the campaign would end in failure.
Arthur Wells knew Black Rock Creek thoroughly, having hunted there
more than once. It was bordered in most places with sharp rocks
against which the waters of the lake beat heavily. Its channel was
some thirty feet deep, so that the "Terror" could take shelter either
upon the surface or under water. In two or three places the steep
banks gave way to sand beaches which led to little gorges reaching up
toward the woods, two or three hundred feet.
It was seven in the evening when our carriage reached these woods.
There was still daylight enough for us to see easily, even in the
shade of the trees. To have crossed openly to the edge of the creek
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: abruptly. "Opposite to me there lives a gentleman, a Russian, an
awfully rich man! Well, just fancy, yesterday I received a basket
of fruit--oh, it just was a basket! Enormous peaches, grapes as big
as that, simply wonderful for the time of year! And in the middle
of them six thousand-franc notes! It was the Russian's doing. Of
course I sent the whole thing back again, but I must say my heart
ached a little--when I thought of the fruit!"
The ladies looked at one another and pursed up their lips. At her
age little Maria Blond had a pretty cheek! Besides, to think that
such things should happen to trollops like her! Infinite was their
contempt for her among themselves. It was Lucy of whom they were
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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 Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: steam: some of it it may have brought up from the very inside of
the earth; most of it, I suspect, comes from the damp herbage and
damp soil over which it runs. Be that as it may, a lava stream
out of Mount Etna, in Sicily, came once down straight upon the
town of Catania. Everybody thought that the town would be
swallowed up; and the poor people there (who knew no better) began
to pray to St. Agatha--a famous saint, who, they say, was martyred
there ages ago--and who, they fancy, has power in heaven to save
them from the lava stream. And really what happened was enough to
make ignorant people, such as they were, think that St. Agatha had
saved them. The lava stream came straight down upon the town
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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 Padre Ignacio by Owen Wister: them when a child of six; and the Padre had taken the wild, half-scared,
spellbound creature and made a musician of him.
"There, Felipe!" he said now. "Can you do it? Slower, and more softly,
muchacho mio. It is about the death of a man, and it should go with our
bell."
The boy listened. "Then the father has played it a tone too low," said
he, "for our bell rings the note of sol, or something very near it, as
the father must surely know." He placed the melody in the right key--an
easy thing for him; and the Padre was delighted.
"Ah, my Felipe," he exclaimed, "what could you and I not do if we had a
better organ! Only a little better! See! above this row of keys would be
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