| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: anywhere, of any kind, let it be what it would.
While they were considering to put this resolution in practice in the
best manner they could, the third man, who was acquainted very well
with the sailmaker, came to know of the design, and got leave to be
one of the number; and thus they prepared to set out.
It happened that they had not an equal share of money; but as the
sailmaker, who had the best stock, was, besides his being lame, the
most unfit to expect to get anything by working in the country, so he
was content that what money they had should all go into one public stock,
on condition that whatever any one of them could gain more than another,
it should without any grudging be all added to the public stock.
A Journal of the Plague Year |
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: said, his quiet close gaze on her.
"Yes, I'm played out and my nerve's gone." She laughed a little
hysterically. "I expect I'm hungry and thirsty, too, though I
hadn't noticed it before."
He whirled to his saddle, and had the canteen thongs unloosed in
a moment. While she drank he rummaged from his saddle-bags some
sandwiches of jerky and a flask of whiskey. She ate the
sandwiches, he the while watching her with amused sympathy in his
swarthy countenance.
"You ain't half-bad at the chuck-wagon, Miss Messiter," he told
her.
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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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: which we must needs renounce for a short time. I, too, dear heart, am
not a base or common husband. We will sell our farm; its value has
increased of late. That and the sale of our furniture will pay my
debts.
MY debts! Celestine embraced her husband a thousand times in the
single kiss with which she thanked him for that generous word.
"We shall still have a hundred thousand francs to put into business.
Before the month is out I shall find some favorable opening. If luck
gave a Martin Falleix to a Saillard, why should we despair? Wait
breakfast for me. I am going now to the ministry, but I shall come
back with my neck free of the yoke."
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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 A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: the lamp of an antique pattern, which hung in the centre of this bare
hall, the pavement of black and white marble, and the paper in
imitation of blocks of stone, with green moss on them in places. A
handsome, but not new, barometer hung on the middle of one of the
walls, as if to accentuate the void. At the sight of it all, he looked
round at his wife; he saw her so much pleased by the red braid binding
to the cotton curtains, so satisfied with the barometer and the
strictly decent statue that ornamented a large Gothic stove, that he
had not the barbarous courage to overthrow such deep convictions.
Instead of blaming his wife, Granville blamed himself, accusing
himself of having failed in his duty of guiding the first steps in
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