| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Build a swift Cheemaun for sailing,
That shall float on the river,
Like a yellow leaf in Autumn,
Like a yellow water-lily!
"Lay aside your cloak, O Birch-tree!
Lay aside your white-skin wrapper,
For the Summer-time is coming,
And the sun is warm in heaven,
And you need no white-skin wrapper!"
Thus aloud cried Hiawatha
In the solitary forest,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: The nephew looked at the uncle, who lowered his head.
"'I will not tell you all the thoughts that assail me; they can be
reduced to one,--this is it: I cannot respect the man who,
knowingly, is smirched for a sum of money, whatever the amount may
be; five francs stolen at play or five times a hundred thousand
gained by a legal trick are equally dishonoring. I will tell you
all. I feel myself degraded by the very love which has hitherto
been all my joy. There rises in my soul a voice which my
tenderness cannot stifle. Ah! I have wept to feel that I have more
conscience than love. Were you to commit a crime I would hide you
in my bosom from human justice, but my devotion could go no
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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 Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: dogs' legs. If the toe of one rests on the top of the other,
both right side up and at right angles, they form a dark
hole or an alley.
The child whose shoes first form an alley must throw a
pebble through this alley--that is, under the toe of the shoe
--three times, or, failing to do so, one of the number takes
up the shoes, and standing on a line, throws them all back
over her head. Then she hops to each successively, kicking
it back over the line, each time crossing the line herself, until
all are over. In case she fails another tries it in the same
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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 Caesar's Commentaries in Latin by Julius Caesar: legio una), pontem, qui erat ad Genavam, iubet rescindi. Ubi de eius
aventu Helvetii certiores facti sunt, legatos ad eum mittunt nobilissimos
civitatis, cuius legationis Nammeius et Verucloetius principem locum
obtinebant, qui dicerent sibi esse in animo sine ullo maleficio iter per
provinciam facere, propterea quod aliud iter haberent nullum: rogare ut
eius voluntate id sibi facere liceat. Caesar, quod memoria tenebat
L. Cassium consulem occisum exercitumque eius ab Helvetiis pulsum et sub
iugum missum, concedendum non putabat; neque homines inimico animo, data
facultate per provinciam itineris faciundi, temperaturos ab iniuria et
maleficio existimabat. Tamen, ut spatium intercedere posset dum milites
quos imperaverat convenirent, legatis respondit diem se ad deliberandum
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