| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from In the Cage by Henry James: time, just of what was NOT on the face. "Miss Dolman, Parade
Lodge, Parade Terrace, Dover. Let him instantly know right one,
Hotel de France, Ostend. Make it seven nine four nine six one.
Wire me alternative Burfield's."
The girl slowly counted. Then he was at Ostend. This hooked on
with so sharp a click that, not to feel she was as quickly letting
it all slip from her, she had absolutely to hold it a minute longer
and to do something to that end. Thus it was that she did on this
occasion what she never did--threw off a "Reply paid?" that sounded
officious, but that she partly made up for by deliberately affixing
the stamps and by waiting till she had done so to give change. She
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A treatise on Good Works by Dr. Martin Luther: commend ourselves to God in all things, especially when they seem
to be spiritual and good.
XIX. After this comes the discipline of the flesh, to kill its
gross, evil lust, to give it rest and relief. This we must kill
and quiet with fasting, watching and labor, and from this we
learn how much and why we shall fast, watch and labor.
There are, alas! many blind men, who practise their castigation,
whether it be fasting, watching or labor, only because they think
these are good works, intending by them to gain much merit. Far
blinder still are they who measure their fasting not only by the
quantity or duration, as these do, but also by the nature of the
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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 Timaeus by Plato: will not contain every kind of animal which it ought to contain, if it is
to be perfect. On the other hand, if they were created by me and received
life at my hands, they would be on an equality with the gods. In order
then that they may be mortal, and that this universe may be truly
universal, do ye, according to your natures, betake yourselves to the
formation of animals, imitating the power which was shown by me in creating
you. The part of them worthy of the name immortal, which is called divine
and is the guiding principle of those who are willing to follow justice and
you--of that divine part I will myself sow the seed, and having made a
beginning, I will hand the work over to you. And do ye then interweave the
mortal with the immortal, and make and beget living creatures, and give
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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 Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: from their flight. The day passed, indeed, without event;
but in the fall of the evening we were called at last into
the verandah by the approaching clink of horse's hoofs.
The doctor, mounted on an Indian pony, rode into the garden,
dismounted, and saluted us. He seemed much more bent, and
his hair more silvery than ever; but his demeanour was
composed, serious, and not unkind.
'Madam,' said he, 'I am come upon a weighty errand; and I
would have you recognise it as an effect of kindness in the
President, that he should send as his ambassador your only
neighbour and your husband's oldest friend in Utah.'
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