| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: This indeed was no small annoyance to Pompey, who was quite
unaccustomed to hear anything ill of himself, and
unexperienced altogether in such encounters; and he was yet
more vexed, when he saw that the senate rejoiced at this foul
usage, and regarded it as a just punishment upon him for his
treachery to Cicero. But when it came even to blows and wounds
in the forum, and that one of Clodius's bondslaves was
apprehended, creeping through the crowd towards Pompey with a
sword in his hand, Pompey laid hold of this pretence, though
perhaps otherwise apprehensive of Clodius's insolence and bad
language, and never appeared again in the forum during all the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Black Beauty by Anna Sewell: told him of the nail, and asked if he should have the shoe looked to.
"No," said Smith, "that will be all right till we get home."
He spoke in a very loud, offhand way, and I thought it very unlike him
not to see about the shoe, as he was generally wonderfully particular
about loose nails in our shoes. He did not come at six nor seven, nor eight,
and it was nearly nine o'clock before he called for me,
and then it was with a loud, rough voice. He seemed in a very bad temper,
and abused the hostler, though I could not tell what for.
The landlord stood at the door and said, "Have a care, Mr. Smith!"
but he answered angrily with an oath; and almost before
he was out of the town he began to gallop, frequently giving me a sharp cut
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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 Message by Honore de Balzac: passed that way. At last we turned back, and under the walls of
some outbuildings I heard a smothered, wailing cry, so stifled
that it was scarcely audible. The sound seemed to come from a
place that might have been a granary. I went in at all risks, and
there we found Juliette. With the instinct of despair, she had
buried herself deep in the hay, hiding her face in it to deaden
those dreadful cries--pudency even stronger than grief. She was
sobbing and crying like a child, but there was a more poignant,
more piteous sound in the sobs. There was nothing left in the
world for her. The maid pulled the hay from her, her mistress
submitting with the supine listlessness of a dying animal. 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 Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: PATRIOT. The inhabitants of the beacon were all well, but
tired above measure for want of employment, as the balance-
crane and apparatus was all in readiness. Under these
circumstances they felt no less desirous of the return of good
weather than those afloat, who were continually tossed with
the agitation of the sea. The writer, in particular, felt
himself almost as much fatigued and worn-out as he had been at
any period since the commencement of the work. The very
backward state of the weather at so advanced a period of the
season unavoidably created some alarm, lest he should be
overtaken with bad weather at a late period of the season,
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