| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson by Mark Twain: prosecution is this--that the person whose hand left the
bloodstained fingerprints upon the handle of the Indian knife is
the person who committed the murder." Wilson paused, during
several moments, to give impressiveness to what he was about to say,
and then added tranquilly, "WE GRANT THAT CLAIM."
It was an electrical surprise. No one was prepared for such
an admission. A buzz of astonishment rose on all sides,
and people were heard to intimate that the overworked lawyer had
lost his mind. Even the veteran judge, accustomed as he was to legal
ambushes and masked batteries in criminal procedure, was not sure
that his ears were not deceiving him, and asked counsel what it
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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 Village Rector by Honore de Balzac: horizon. The main building has only one floor above the ground-floor,
covered with a mansarde roof in the olden style. The towers at each
end are three stories in height. The middle tower has a stunted dome
something like that on the Pavillon de l'Horloge of the palace of the
Tuileries, and in it is a single room forming a belvedere and
containing the clock. As a matter of economy the roofs had all been
made of gutter-tiles, the enormous weight of which was easily
supported by the stout beams and uprights of the framework cut in the
forest.
Before his death Graslin had laid out the road which the peasantry had
just built out of gratitude; for these restorations (which Graslin
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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 Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: the encyclopaedic knowledge of trifles, the practice of manoeuvring,
the important small things, the musical tones and harmony of coloring,
the angelic bedevilments and innocent cunning, the speech and the
silence, the seriousness and the banter, the wit and the obtuseness,
the diplomacy and the ignorance which make up the perfect lady."
"And where, in accordance with the sketch you have drawn," said
Mademoiselle des Touches to Emile Blondet, "would you class the female
author? Is she a perfect lady, a woman /comme il faut/?"
"When she has no genius, she is a woman /comme il n'en faut pas/,"
Blondet replied, emphasizing the words with a stolen glance, which
might make them seem praise frankly addressed to Camille Maupin. "This
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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 Selected Writings of Guy De Maupassant by Guy De Maupassant: parasol. WHACK! WHACK! Melie got two of them, but she was
furious, and she hits hard when she is in a rage, so she caught
the fat woman by the hair and then, THUMP, THUMP. Slaps in the
face rained down like ripe plums. I should have let them go
on--women among themselves, men among themselves--it does not do
to mix the blows, but the little man in the linen jacket jumped
up like a devil and was going to rush at my wife. Ah! no, no, not
that, my friend! I caught the gentleman with the end of my fist,
CRASH, CRASH, one on the nose, the other in the stomach. He threw
up his arms and legs and fell on his back into the river, just
into the hole.
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