| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: turned himself round for a fresh doze he heard the steps descending the
ladder. His first impulse was to draw the blanket over his head and his
legs under him, and to shout; but recollecting that the door was locked and
the window carefully bolted, he allowed his head slowly to crop out among
the blankets, and listened intently. Whosoever it might be, there was no
danger of their getting at him; so he clambered out of bed, and going on
tiptoe to the door, applied his eye to the keyhole. There was nothing to
be seen; so walking to the window, he brought his face as close to the
glass as his nose would allow. There was a figure just discernible. The
lad was not trying to walk softly, and the heavy shuffling of the well-
known velschoens could be clearly heard through the closed window as they
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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 Aspern Papers by Henry James: I don't know whether six months hence I shall have bread to put in my mouth.
I have treated myself for once; it has been an immense luxury.
But when it comes to going on--!"
"Are your rooms too dear? If they are you can have more for the same money,"
Juliana responded. "We can arrange, we can combinare, as they say here."
"Well yes, since you ask me, they are too dear," I said.
"Evidently you suppose me richer than I am."
She looked at me in her barricaded way. "If you write books
don't you sell them?"
"Do you mean don't people buy them? A little--not so much as I could wish.
Writing books, unless one be a great genius--and even then!--is the last road
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