| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: sick man, for Nucingen persisted in asserting that he was perfectly
well.
Keller, Rastignac, de Marsay, du Tillet, all their friends had made
the Baroness understand that a man like Nucingen could not be allowed
to die without any notice being taken of it; his enormous business
transactions demanded some care; it was absolutely necessary to know
where he stood. These gentlemen also were asked to dinner, and the
Comte de Gondreville, Francois Keller's father-in-law, the Chevalier
d'Espard, des Lupeaulx, Doctor Bianchon--Desplein's best beloved pupil
--Beaudenord and his wife, the Comte and Comtesse de Montcornet,
Blondet, Mademoiselle des Touches and Conti, and finally, Lucien de
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: What else are all things that this globe contains,
But a confused chaos of mishaps,
Wherein, as in a glass, we plainly see,
That all our life is but a Tragedy?
Since mighty kings are subject to mishap--
Aye, mighty kings are subject to mishap!--
Since martial Locrine is bereft of life,
Shall Estrild live, then, after Locrine's death?
Shall love of life bar her from Locrine's sword?
O no, this sword, that hath bereft his life,
Shall now deprive me of my fleeting soul;
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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 Salome by Oscar Wilde: rois.
SALOME. De qui parle-t-il?
LE JEUNE SYRIEN. On ne sait jamais, princesse.
IOKANAAN. Ou est celle qui ayant vu des hommes peints sur la
muraille, des images de Chaldeens tracees avec des couleurs, s'est
laissee emporter e la concupiscence de ses yeux, et a envoye des
ambassadeurs en Chaldee?
SALOME. C'est de ma mere qu'il parle.
LE JEUNE SYRIEN. Mais non, princesse.
SALOME. Si, c'est de ma mere.
IOKANAAN. Ou est celle qui s'est abandonnee aux capitaines des
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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 Main Street by Sinclair Lewis: armed with ridicule. She told herself that her sensitiveness
was preposterous, but daily she was thrown into panic. She
saw curtains slide back into innocent smoothness. Old women
who had been entering their houses slipped out again to stare
at her--in the wintry quiet she could hear them tiptoeing
on their porches. When she had for a blessed hour forgotten
the searchlight, when she was scampering through a chill dusk,
happy in yellow windows against gray night, her heart checked
as she realized that a head covered with a shawl was thrust
up over a snow-tipped bush to watch her.
She admitted that she was taking herself too seriously; that
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