| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: vultures hadn't meddled with them, and so that guess
wouldn't do. So at last we give it up, and judged we
wouldn't think about it no more, because it made us
low-spirited.
Then we opened the box, and it had gems and jewels
in it, quite a pile, and some little veils of the kind the
dead women had on, with fringes made out of curious
gold money that we warn't acquainted with. We
wondered if we better go and try to find them again
and give it back; but Tom thought it over and said
no, it was a country that was full of robbers, and they
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: "Ten times as many, but the trouble is that the honest folks
can't trust each other. You see, if one of them made a mistake
and confided in the wrong man--well, some fine day he would go
riding herd and would not turn up at night. Next week, or next
month, maybe, one of his partners might find a pile of bones in
an arroyo.
"Have you ever seen this Bannister?"
"You MUST speak lower when you talk of him, Miss Messiter," the
woman insisted. "Yes, I saw him once; at least I think I did.
Mighty few folks know for sure that they have seen him. He is a
mystery, and he travels under many names and disguises."
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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 Travels of Sir John Mandeville by Sir John Mandeville: and many they found and slew them anon. So it happened that as
they went searching toward the place that the emperor was, they saw
an owl sitting upon a tree above him; and then they said amongst
them, that there was no man because that they saw that bird there,
and so they went their way; and thus escaped the emperor from
death. And then he went privily all by night, till he came to his
folk that were full glad of his coming, and made great thankings to
God Immortal, and to that bird by whom their lord was saved. And
therefore principally above all fowls of world they worship the
owl; and when they have any of their feathers, they keep them full
preciously instead of relics, and bear them upon their heads with
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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 Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: he? Amid the many thoughts that assailed him during that journey, one
all-absorbing problem filled his mind--"Why did she go away?" Theories
grew thickly on such ground for supposition, and naturally he inclined
to the one that flattered his hopes--"If the Vicomtesse cares for me,
a clever woman would, of course, choose Switzerland, where nobody
knows either of us, in preference to France, where she would find
censorious critics."
An impassioned lover of a certain stamp would not feel attracted to a
woman clever enough to choose her own ground; such women are too
clever. However, there is nothing to prove that there was any truth in
Gaston's supposition.
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