| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Episode Under the Terror by Honore de Balzac: looked up at the man as she spoke, as if to thank him by a glance; but
she saw the red cap on his head, and a cry broke from her. "Ah! YOU
have betrayed me!"
The man and his young wife replied by an indignant gesture, that
brought the color to the old lady's face; perhaps she felt relief,
perhaps she blushed for her suspicions.
"Forgive me!" she said, with a childlike sweetness in her tones. Then,
drawing a gold louis from her pocket, she held it out to the pastry-
cook. "That is the price agreed upon," she added.
There is a kind of want that is felt instinctively by those who know
want. The man and his wife looked at one another, then at the elderly
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Marie by H. Rider Haggard: Now when I heard this false and abominable charge my rage and
indignation caused me to laugh aloud.
"Are you mad, commandant," I exclaimed, "that you should say such
things? On what evidence is this wicked lie advanced against me?"
"No, Allan Quatermain, I am not mad," he replied, "although it is true
that through your evil doings I, who have lost my wife and three
children by the Zulu spears, have suffered enough to make me mad. As
for the evidence against you, you shall hear it. But first I will write
down that you plead Not guilty."
He did so, then said:
"If you will acknowledge certain things it will save us all much time,
Marie |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from At the Earth's Core by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and a different race and color.
"You saved my life," he replied; "from that moment it
became my duty to protect and befriend you. I would
have been no true Mezop had I evaded my plain duty;
but it was a pleasure in this instance for I like you.
I wish that you would come and live with me. You shall
become a member of my tribe. Among us there is the best
of hunting and fishing, and you shall have, to choose
a mate from, the most beautiful girls of Pellucidar.
Will you come?"
I told him about Perry then, and Dian the Beautiful,
At the Earth's Core |
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 Charmides and Other Poems by Oscar Wilde: And others bade the halcyon sing her softest lullaby.
And when he neared his old Athenian home,
A mighty billow rose up suddenly
Upon whose oily back the clotted foam
Lay diapered in some strange fantasy,
And clasping him unto its glassy breast
Swept landward, like a white-maned steed upon a venturous quest!
Now where Colonos leans unto the sea
There lies a long and level stretch of lawn;
The rabbit knows it, and the mountain bee
For it deserts Hymettus, and the Faun
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