| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesson of the Master by Henry James: pass. He hadn't taken ten steps before he heard himself called
after with a friendly semi-articulate "Er - I beg your pardon!" He
turned round and the General, smiling at him from the porch, said:
"Won't you come in? I won't leave you the advantage of me!" Paul
declined to come in, and then felt regret, for Miss Fancourt, so
late in the afternoon, might return at any moment. But her father
gave him no second chance; he appeared mainly to wish not to have
struck him as ungracious. A further look at the visitor had
recalled something, enough at least to enable him to say: "You've
come back, you've come back?" Paul was on the point of replying
that he had come back the night before, but he suppressed, the next
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: "It will be your part," said he, "to keep the leaves alight, and
feed the fire slowly. While they blaze (which is but for a little
moment) I must do my errand; and before the ashes blacken, the same
power that brought us carries us away. Be ready now with the
match; and do you call me in good time lest the flames burn out and
I be left."
As soon as the leaves caught, the sorcerer leaped like a deer out
of the circle, and began to race along the beach like a hound that
has been bathing. As he ran, he kept stooping to snatch shells;
and it seemed to Keola that they glittered as he took them. The
leaves blazed with a clear flame that consumed them swiftly; and
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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 The Garden Party by Katherine Mansfield: "Awfully," said Reggie, so fervently that as he opened the French window
for her and stood to one side, Anne ran forward and laughed at the doves
instead.
To and fro, to and fro over the fine red sand on the floor of the dove
house, walked the two doves. One was always in front of the other. One
ran forward, uttering a little cry, and the other followed, solemnly bowing
and bowing. "You see," explained Anne, "the one in front, she's Mrs. Dove.
She looks at Mr. Dove and gives that little laugh and runs forward, and he
follows her, bowing and bowing. And that makes her laugh again. Away she
runs, and after her," cried Anne, and she sat back on her heels, "comes
poor Mr. Dove, bowing and bowing...and that's their whole life. They never
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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 Altar of the Dead by Henry James: mightn't resent it as much as she'd have liked.
CHAPTER VII.
HE learned in that instant two things: one being that even in so
long a time she had gathered no knowledge of his great intimacy and
his great quarrel; the other that in spite of this ignorance,
strangely enough, she supplied on the spot a reason for his stupor.
"How extraordinary," he presently exclaimed, "that we should never
have known!"
She gave a wan smile which seemed to Stransom stranger even than
the fact itself. "I never, never spoke of him."
He looked again about the room. "Why then, if your life had been
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