| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: showed a row of 0's long enough to allow Guillaume for once to relax
the stern rule as to dessert which reigned throughout the year. The
shrewd old draper rubbed his hands, and allowed his assistants to
remain at table. The members of the crew had hardly swallowed their
thimbleful of some home-made liqueur, when the rumble of a carriage
was heard. The family party were going to see /Cendrillon/ at the
Varietes, while the two younger apprentices each received a crown of
six francs, with permission to go wherever they chose, provided they
were in by midnight.
Notwithstanding this debauch, the old cloth-merchant was shaving
himself at six next morning, put on his maroon-colored coat, of which
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: confusion. The captain hurried to drop the anchor, and the narrow
craft lay rolling in the billows.
What to do? The captain shrugged his shoulders like a Frenchman.
"Wait here, I suppose." But how long? "Who knows? Perhaps till
to-morrow; perhaps the day after. They will send another boat to
look for us in the course of time."
But the quarters were cramped; the weather looked ugly; if the wind
should rise, the cranky launch would not be a safe cradle for the
night. Damon and I preferred the canoes, for they at least would
float if they were capsized. So we stepped into the frail, buoyant
shells of bark once more, and danced over the big waves toward 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 Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: (with that glimpse through the swinging gates of the green fields beyond)--
"Good master, we two have climbed this mighty mountain together, and the
stones have cut my hoofs as they cut your feet. Perhaps, if when we were
at the foot you had found out that the burden was two heavy for me, and had
then said to me, 'Lie down, my beastie; I will carry on the burden alone;
lie down and rest!' I might then have listened. But now, just here, where
I see the gates swinging open, a smooth road, and green fields before us, I
think I shall go on a little farther. We two have climbed together; maybe
we shall go on yet, side by side."
For the heart of labouring womanhood cries out today to the man who would
suggest she need not seek new fields of labour, that child-bearing is
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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 Critias by Plato: colour to please the eye, and to be a natural source of delight. The
entire circuit of the wall, which went round the outermost zone, they
covered with a coating of brass, and the circuit of the next wall they
coated with tin, and the third, which encompassed the citadel, flashed with
the red light of orichalcum. The palaces in the interior of the citadel
were constructed on this wise:--In the centre was a holy temple dedicated
to Cleito and Poseidon, which remained inaccessible, and was surrounded by
an enclosure of gold; this was the spot where the family of the ten princes
first saw the light, and thither the people annually brought the fruits of
the earth in their season from all the ten portions, to be an offering to
each of the ten. Here was Poseidon's own temple which was a stadium in
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