| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The American by Henry James: he said slowly. "I thought you said you wouldn't interfere.
I know you don't like me; but that doesn't make any difference.
I thought you promised me you wouldn't interfere.
I thought you swore on your honor that you wouldn't interfere.
Don't you remember, marquis?"
The marquis lifted his eyebrows; but he was apparently determined to be
even more urbane than usual. He rested his two hands upon the back of his
mother's chair and bent forward, as if he were leaning over the edge of a
pulpit or a lecture-desk. He did not smile, but he looked softly grave.
"Excuse me, sir," he said, "I assured you that I would not influence
my sister's decision. I adhered, to the letter, to my engagement.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: believed in the Pentateuch as firmly as he believed in the House of
Peers; so I concluded that it was a woman, and asked him if he was
married yet.
'I don't understand women well enough,' he answered.
'My dear Gerald,' I said, 'women are meant to be loved, not to be
understood.'
'I cannot love where I cannot trust,' he replied.
'I believe you have a mystery in your life, Gerald,' I exclaimed;
'tell me about it.'
'Let us go for a drive,' he answered, 'it is too crowded here. No,
not a yellow carriage, any other colour - there, that dark green
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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 Octopus by Frank Norris: that blinded the eyes and choked the throat and nostrils.
As his eyes became used to the shadows of the cavern below him,
he began to distinguish the grey mass of the wheat, a great
expanse, almost liquid in its texture, which, as the cataract
from above plunged into it, moved and shifted in long, slow
eddies. As he stood there, this cataract on a sudden increased
in volume. He turned about, casting his eyes upward toward the
elevator to discover the cause. His foot caught in a coil of
rope, and he fell headforemost into the hold.
The fall was a long one and he struck the surface of the wheat
with the sodden impact of a bundle of damp clothes. For the
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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 Across The Plains by Robert Louis Stevenson: It would seem not, for, whenever we met them, the passengers ran on
the platform and cried to us through the windows, in a kind of
wailing chorus, to "come back." On the plains of Nebraska, in the
mountains of Wyoming, it was still the same cry, and dismal to my
heart, "Come back!" That was what we heard by the way "about the
good country we were going to." And at that very hour the Sand-lot
of San Francisco was crowded with the unemployed, and the echo from
the other side of Market Street was repeating the rant of
demagogues.
If, in truth, it were only for the sake of wages that men emigrate,
how many thousands would regret the bargain! But wages, indeed,
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