| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Domestic Peace by Honore de Balzac: The Vendetta
The Gondreville Mystery
Colonel Chabert
The Seamy Side of History
A Woman of Thirty
Gondreville, Malin, Comte de
The Gondreville Mystery
A Start in Life
The Member for Arcis
Keller, Francois
Cesar Birotteau
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Mrs. Warren's Profession by George Bernard Shaw: VIVIE [who has been looking him up and down sharply] If you like.
[She takes his tenderly proferred hand and gives it a squeeze
that makes him open his eyes; then turns away, and says to her
mother] Will you come in, or shall I get a couple more chairs?
[She goes into the porch for the chairs].
MRS WARREN. Well, George, what do you think of her?
CROFTS [ruefully] She has a powerful fist. Did you shake hands
with her, Praed?
PRAED. Yes: it will pass off presently.
CROFTS. I hope so. [Vivie reappears with two more chairs. He
hurries to her assistance]. Allow me.
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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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: both sides continued without doing anything, expecting daylight. At
the first dawn, Pyrrhus, seeing the great citadel Aspis full of
enemies, was disturbed, and remarking, among a variety of figures
dedicated in the market-place, a wolf and bull of brass, as it were
ready to attack one another, he was struck with alarm, recollecting
an oracle that formerly predicted fate had determined his death when
he should see a wolf fighting with a bull. The Argives say, these
figures were set up in record of a thing that long ago had happened
there. For Danaus, at his first landing in the country, near the
Pyramia in Thyreatis, as he was on his way towards Argos, espied a
wolf fighting with a bull, and conceiving the wolf to represent him,
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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 House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: them that she turned and extended her hand to her hostess.
"I am joining the Duchess tomorrow," she explained, "and it
seemed easier for me to remain on shore for the night."
She held firmly to Mrs. Bry's wavering eye while she gave this
explanation, but when it was over Selden saw her send a tentative
glance from one to another of the women's faces. She read their
incredulity in their averted looks, and in the mute wretchedness
of the men behind them, and for a miserable half-second he
thought she quivered on the brink of failure. Then, turning to
him with an easy gesture, and the pale bravery of her recovered
smile--"Dear Mr. Selden," she said, "you promised to see me to my
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