| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: the whole vast interval, from ocean up to sky, might be densely
filled with the disembodied souls of her departed human
kindred, waiting to see how she would endure that path of grief
in which their steps had gone before. "It may be from this
influence," she vaguely mused within herself, "that the ocean
derives its endless song of sorrow. Perhaps we shall know the
meaning when we understand that of the stars, and of our own
sad lives."
She rose again and went to the bedside. It all seemed like a
dream, and she was able to look at Emilia's existence and at
her own and at all else, as if it were a great way off; as we
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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 Exiles by Honore de Balzac: of a heavy fall--the fall, as his experienced ear assured him, of a
dead body. He hastened into Godefroid's room, and saw him lying in a
heap with a long rope tight round his neck, the end meandering over
the floor.
When he had untied it, the poor lad opened his eyes.
"Where am I?" he asked, with a hopeful gleam.
"In your own room," said the elder man, looking with surprise at
Godefroid's neck, and at the nail to which the cord had been tied, and
which was still in the knot.
"In heaven?" said the boy, in a voice of music.
"No; on earth!"
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