| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: were in the house at three o'clock (the exact hour at which the attack
was made), who are our witnesses? Marthe, the wife of one of the
accused, the Durieus, and Catherine, your own servants, and Monsieur
and Madame d'Hauteserre, father and mother of two of the accused. Such
testimony is valueless; the law does not admit it against you, and
commonsense rejects it when given in your favor. If, on the other
hand, you were to say you went to the forest to recover eleven hundred
thousand francs in gold, you would send the accused to the galleys as
robbers. Judge, jury, audience, and the whole of France would believe
that you took that gold from Gondreville, and abducted the senator
that you might ransack his house. The accusation as it now stands is
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: remember to have told thee afore. Put off therefore now all
malice, and hate all the works of the old man, which are corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts; and, as new-born babe, desire
to drink the reasonable and sincere milk of the virtues, that
thou mayest grow thereby, and attain unto the knowledge of the
commandments of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the
measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: that thou mayest
henceforth be no more a child in mind, tossed to and fro, and
carried about on the wild and raging waves of thy passions: or
rather in malice be a child, but have thy mind settled and made
steadfast toward that which is good, and walk worthy of the
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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 A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: was Bianchon--wanted to cut off her hair. The Duchesse de Berri's hair
is not more beautiful than Claudine's; she would not hear of it, she
told Bianchon in confidence that she could not allow it to be cut
without leave from the Comte de Palferine. Bianchon went to Charles
Edward. Charles Edward heard him with much seriousness. The doctor had
explained the case at length, and showed that it was absolutely
necessary to sacrifice the hair to insure the success of the
operation.
" 'Cut off Claudine's hair!' cried he in peremptory tones. 'No. I
would sooner lose her.'
"Even now, after a lapse of four years, Bianchon still quotes that
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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 Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: that inner part of us which we call our hearts and spirits, and
which will endure when eyes and brain are turned again to dust.
If your heart be pure and sober, gentle and truthful, then Lady
Why speaks to you without words, and tells you things which Madam
How and all her pupils, the men of science, can never tell. When
you lie, it may be, on a painful sick-bed, but with your mother's
hand in yours; when you sit by her, looking up into her loving
eyes; when you gaze out towards the setting sun, and fancy golden
capes and islands in the clouds, and seas and lakes in the blue
sky, and the infinite rest and peace of the far west sends rest
and peace into your young heart, till you sit silent and happy,
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