| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: in a queue, as at the ticket office of a railway station, before a
brilliantly illuminated counter of vast extent. These latter persons,
who carried portmanteaus in their hands, had a dejected, exhausted look;
their garments were not very fresh, and they seemed to be rendering
some mysterious tribute to a magnificent young man with a waxed mustache,
and a shirtfront adorned with diamond buttons, who every now and
then dropped an absent glance over their multitudinous patience.
They were American citizens doing homage to a hotel clerk.
"I'm glad he didn't tell us to go there," said one of our Englishmen,
alluding to their friend on the steamer, who had told them so many things.
They walked up the Fifth Avenue, where, for instance, he had told
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: moment.
It is an oft-told story: but so grand a one that I must sketch it
for you, however clumsily, once more.
In that mountain province called Farsistan, north-east of what we
now call Persia, the dwelling-place of the Persians, there dwelt, in
the sixth and seventh centuries before Christ, a hardy tribe, of the
purest blood of Iran, a branch of the same race as the Celtic,
Teutonic, Greek, and Hindoo, and speaking a tongue akin to theirs.
They had wandered thither, say their legends, out of the far north-
east, from off some lofty plateau of Central Asia, driven out by the
increasing cold, which left them but two mouths of summer to ten of
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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 A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: Of burning blushes or of weeping water,
Or swooning paleness; and he takes and leaves,
In either's aptness, as it best deceives,
To blush at speeches rank, to weep at woes,
Or to turn white and swoon at tragic shows;
'That not a heart which in his level came
Could scape the hail of his all-hurting aim,
Showing fair nature is both kind and tame;
And, veil'd in them, did win whom he would maim:
Against the thing he sought he would exclaim;
When he most burned in heart-wish'd luxury,
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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 Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: Mademoiselle Esther still lives!--and is happy!--And do you know why?
Because you love her. Do not be a fool. For four years we have been
waiting for a chance to turn up, for us or against us; well, it will
take something more than mere cleverness to wash the cabbage luck has
flung at us now. There are good and bad together in this turn of the
wheel--as there are in everything. Do you know what I was thinking of
when you came in?"
"No."
"Of making myself heir here, as I did at Barcelona, to an old bigot,
by Asie's help."
"A crime?"
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