The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: fall short of the type, as being under-sized, or crook-nosed,[5] or
gray-eyed,[6] or near-sighted, or ungainly, or stiff-jointed, or
deficient in strength, thin-haired, lanky, disproportioned, devoid of
pluck or of nose, or unsound of foot. To particularise: an under-sized
dog will, ten to one, break off from the chase[7] faint and flagging
in the performance of his duty owing to mere diminutiveness. An
aquiline nose means no mouth, and consequently an inability to hold
the hare fast.[8] A blinking bluish eye implies defect of vision;[9]
just as want of shape means ugliness.[10] The stiff-limbed dog will
come home limping from the hunting-field;[11] just as want of strength
and thinness of coat go hand in hand with incapacity for toil.[12] The
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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 Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad: of passion for the fierce soul which seemed to look
at one out of the sardonically savage face of that old
seaman. However, I noticed that she was holding
some musical instrument--guitar or mandoline--
in her hand. Perhaps that was the secret of her
sortilege.
For Mr. Burns that photograph explained why
the unloaded ship had kept sweltering at anchor
for three weeks in a pestilential hot harbour with-
out air. They lay there and gasped. The cap-
tain, appearing now and then on short visits,
 The Shadow Line |