| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Complete Poems of Longfellow by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: And then he regales
The Abbot with scandalous tales.
LUCIFER.
A spy in the convent? One of the brothers
Telling scandalous tales of the others?
Out upon him, the lazy loon!
I would put a stop to that pretty soon,
In a way he should rue it.
MONKS.
How shall we do it!
LUCIFER.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: hitting on the ingenious expedients which, in prisoners and in lovers,
seem to be the last effort of intelligence spurred by a wild craving
for liberty, or by the fire of love. Theodore wandered about the
neighborhood with the restlessness of a madman, as though movement
might inspire him with some device. After racking his imagination, it
occurred to him to bribe the blowsy waiting-maid with gold. Thus a few
notes were exchanged at long intervals during the fortnight following
the ill-starred morning when Monsieur Guillaume and Theodore had so
scrutinized one another. At the present moment the young couple had
agreed to see each other at a certain hour of the day, and on Sunday,
at Saint-Leu, during Mass and vespers. Augustine had sent her dear
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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 Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: has the American people laid hold on ideas of this kind with the
passionate energy of the French people in the eighteenth century,
or displayed the same blind confidence in the value and absolute
truth of any theory. This difference between the Americans and
the French originates in several causes, but principally in the
following one. The Americans form a democratic people, which has
always itself directed public affairs. The French are a
democratic people, who, for a long time, could only speculate on
the best manner of conducting them. The social condition of
France led that people to conceive very general ideas on the
subject of government, whilst its political constitution
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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 The Copy-Cat & Other Stories by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: got horribly on her nerves. Little Lucy was her one
alleviation. Little Lucy sat in the midst of the
boisterous throng, perfectly still, crowned with her
garland of leaves and flowers, her sweet, pale little
face calmly observant. She was the high light of
Madame's school, the effect which made the
whole. All the others looked at little Lucy, they
talked to her, they talked at her; but she remained
herself unmoved, as a high light should be. "Dear
little soul," Miss Parmalee thought. She also
thought that it was a pity that little Lucy could
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