| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Under the Andes by Rex Stout: I turned.
The king of the Incas was standing within the doorway,
surveying the lovers with beadlike, sparkling eyes.
Chapter XI.
A ROYAL VISITOR.
If it had not been for the manifest danger, I could have
laughed aloud at what I read in the eyes of the king. Was it not
supremely ridiculous for Desiree Le Mire, who had been sought after
by the great and the wealthy and the powerful of all Europe, to be
regarded with desire by that ugly dwarf? And it was there,
unmistakably.
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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: to handle an animal like this, well-bred, well-mannered, well-cared-for;
bless ye! I can tell how a horse is treated. Give me the handling of a horse
for twenty minutes, and I'll tell you what sort of a groom he has had.
Look at this one, pleasant, quiet, turns about just as you want him,
holds up his feet to be cleaned out, or anything else you please to wish;
then you'll find another fidgety, fretty, won't move the right way,
or starts across the stall, tosses up his head as soon as you come near him,
lays his ears, and seems afraid of you; or else squares about at you
with his heels. Poor things! I know what sort of treatment they have had.
If they are timid it makes them start or shy; if they are high-mettled
it makes them vicious or dangerous; their tempers are mostly made
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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 Cavalry General by Xenophon: their front"; or lastly, supposing you have reached flat country, "to
form squadron in order of battle." If only for the sake of practice,
it is well to go through evolutions of the sort;[4] besides which it
adds pleasure to the march thus to diversify the line of route with
cavalry mavouvres.
[2] See "Hell." V. iv. 40 for a case in point.
[3] Or, "advance by column of route." See "Hell." VII. iv. 23.
[4] Or, "it is a pleasant method of beguiling the road." Cf. Plat.
"Laws," i. 625 B.
Supposing, however, you are off roads altogether and moving fast over
difficult ground, no matter whether you are in hostile or in friendly
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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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: him on board a shore boat, and when the insurgents levelled their
muskets, standing up and naming himself, 'CONSOLE INGLESE.' A
friend of the Jenkins', Captain Glynne, had a more painful, if a
less dramatic part. One Colonel Nosozzo had been killed (I read)
while trying to prevent his own artillery from firing on the mob;
but in that hell's cauldron of a distracted city, there were no
distinctions made, and the Colonel's widow was hunted for her life.
In her grief and peril, the Glynnes received and hid her; Captain
Glynne sought and found her husband's body among the slain, saved
it for two days, brought the widow a lock of the dead man's hair;
but at last, the mob still strictly searching, seems to have
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