| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Passion in the Desert by Honore de Balzac: without anger. I would have given all the world--my cross even, which
I had not got then--to have brought her to life again. It was as
though I had murdered a real person; and the soldiers who had seen my
flag, and were come to my assistance, found me in tears.'
" 'Well sir,' he said, after a moment of silence, 'since then I have
been in war in Germany, in Spain, in Russia, in France; I've certainly
carried my carcase about a good deal, but never have I seen anything
like the desert. Ah! yes, it is very beautiful!'
" 'What did you feel there?' I asked him.
"'Oh! that can't be described, young man! Besides, I am not always
regretting my palm trees and my panther. I should have to be very
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: unstable in thinking about this job in the mill--and Myrtle. I
know what I want. I want you!"
"Please, please, oh, please!"
"I do. I'm not a schoolboy any more. I want you. If
I take Myrtle, it's to forget you."
"Please, please!"
"It's you that are unstable! You talk at things and play
at things, but you're scared. Would I mind it if you and I
went off to poverty, and I had to dig ditches? I would not!
But you would. I think you would come to like me, but you
won't admit it. I wouldn't have said this, but when you
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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 Dreams by Olive Schreiner: fell asleep.
And I dreamed a dream.
I dreamed I saw a land. And on the hills walked brave women and brave men,
hand in hand. And they looked into each other's eyes, and they were not
afraid.
And I saw the women also hold each other's hands.
And I said to him beside me, "What place is this?"
And he said, "This is heaven."
And I said, "Where is it?"
And he answered, "On earth."
And I said, "When shall these things be?"
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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 Turn of the Screw by Henry James: The fact that the days passed for me without another encounter ought,
it would have appeared, to have done something toward soothing my nerves.
Since the light brush, that second night on the upper landing,
of the presence of a woman at the foot of the stair, I had seen nothing,
whether in or out of the house, that one had better not have seen.
There was many a corner round which I expected to come upon Quint,
and many a situation that, in a merely sinister way, would have favored
the appearance of Miss Jessel. The summer had turned, the summer had gone;
the autumn had dropped upon Bly and had blown out half our lights.
The place, with its gray sky and withered garlands, its bared spaces
and scattered dead leaves, was like a theater after the performance--
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