| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: This family picture, these virtuous Dominical habits, recalled so
little the week-day Desroches, dining in cafes with all the male and
female /viveurs/ of renown, that one of them, Malaga, a circus-rider,
famous for her wit and vim, remarked that lawyers ought not to be
allowed to masquerade in that way and deceive the public with
fictitious family joys.
It was to this relative integrity that de Trailles now went for
counsel, as he never failed to do in all the many difficulties he
encountered in life. Following a good habit, Desroches listened,
without interrupting, to the long explanation of the case submitted to
him. As Maxime hid nothing from this species of confessor, he gave his
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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 Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: my fingers, I spelled out an Arabic inscription on the wall. The
author of the work informed those to come after him that he had loosed
two stones in the lowest course of masonry and hollowed out eleven
feet beyond underground. As he went on with his excavations, it became
necessary to spread the fragments of stone and mortar over the floor
of his cell. But even if jailers and inquisitors had not felt sure
that the structure of the building was such that no watch was needed
below, the level of the Pozzi dungeons being several steps below the
threshold, it was possible gradually to raise the earthen floor
without exciting the warder's suspicions.
"The tremendous labor had profited nothing--nothing at least to him
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