The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Mistress Wilding by Rafael Sabatini: we are three thousand strong..."
Grey interrupted him rudely. "Nay," he insisted. " You must not
presume upon that. We are not yet fit to fight. It is His Grace's
business at present to drill and discipline his troops and induce more
friends to join him."
"Already we are turning men away because we have no weapons to put into
their hands," Wilding reminded them, and a murmur of approval ran round,
which but served to anger Grey the more, to render more obstinate his
opposition.
"But all that come in are not unprovided," was his lordship's retort.
"There are the Hampshire gentry and their friends. They will come armed,
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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 At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: which the house was buried, like the whole neighborhood, dropped his
eyes towards the lower regions. An involuntary smile parted his lips
each time he looked at the shop, where, in fact, there were some
laughable details.
A formidable wooden beam, resting on four pillars, which appeared to
have bent under the weight of the decrepit house, had been encrusted
with as many coats of different paint as there are of rouge on an old
duchess' cheek. In the middle of this broad and fantastically carved
joist there was an old painting representing a cat playing rackets.
This picture was what moved the young man to mirth. But it must be
said that the wittiest of modern painters could not invent so comical
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