| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Camille by Alexandre Dumas: three times as much money as when I did not gamble. It was
impossible to resist an existence which gave me an easy means of
satisfying the thousand caprices of Marguerite. As for her, she
continued to love me as much, or even more than ever.
As I told you, I began by being allowed to stay only from
midnight to six o'clock, then I was asked sometimes to a box in
the theatre, then she sometimes came to dine with me. One morning
I did not go till eight, and there came a day when I did not go
till twelve.
But, sooner than the moral metamorphosis, a physical
metamorphosis came about in Marguerite. I had taken her cure in
 Camille |
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 Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain: "In such delicious fancies time quickly glides by,
and the welcome hour arrives for her entrance into
the Elysian world, of which she has had such bright
dreams. How fairy-like does everything appear to
her enchanted vision! Each new scene is more charming
than the last. But after a while she finds that
beneath this goodly exterior, all is vanity, the
flattery which once charmed her soul, now grates
harshly upon her ear; the ball-room has lost its
charms; and with wasted health and imbittered heart,
she turns away with the conviction that earthly
 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer |