| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: and thunders, and great murmurs and noises, all days and nights,
and great noise, as it were sound of tabors and of nakers and of
trumps, as though it were of a great feast. This vale is all full
of devils, and hath been always. And men say there, that it is one
of the entries of hell. In that vale is great plenty of gold and
silver. Wherefore many misbelieving men, and many Christian men
also, go in oftentime for to have of the treasure that there is;
but few come again, and namely of the misbelieving men, ne of the
Christian men neither, for anon they be strangled of devils.
And in mid place of that vale, under a rock, is an head and the
visage of a devil bodily, full horrible and dreadful to see, and it
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: But he answered him: 'Nay, for the cloak is neither mine nor
thine, but the child's only,' and he bade him Godspeed, and went to
his own house and knocked.
And when his wife opened the door and saw that her husband had
returned safe to her, she put her arms round his neck and kissed
him, and took from his back the bundle of faggots, and brushed the
snow off his boots, and bade him come in.
But he said to her, 'I have found something in the forest, and I
have brought it to thee to have care of it,' and he stirred not
from the threshold.
'What is it?' she cried. 'Show it to me, for the house is bare,
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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 The Street of Seven Stars by Mary Roberts Rinehart: talk of war."
"Foolishness! Does a police officer sigh always? Or a spy have
such sadness in his face? And he grows thin and white."
"The rose, Fraulein."
The clerk who had wrapped up the flower held it out to the
customer. The customer, however, was not looking. She was gazing
with strange intentness at the back of a worn gray overcoat. Then
with a curious clutch at her heart she went white. Harmony, of
course, Harmony come to fetch the golden rose that was to
complete Le Grande's costume.
She recovered almost at once and made an excuse to leave by
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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 Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: again, one of mere wealth corrupting and corrupt; and is destroyed,
not by the people from below, but by the monarch from above. The
hereditary bondsmen may know
Who would be free,
Himself must strike the blow.
But they dare not, know not how. The king must do it for them. He
must become the State. "Better one tyrant," as Voltaire said, "than
many." Better stand in fear of one lion far away, than of many
wolves, each in the nearest wood. And so arise those truly
monstrous Eastern despotisms, of which modern Persia is, thank God,
the only remaining specimen; for Turkey and Egypt are too amenable
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