| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: welcome; but I felt it strongly then, it is strongly on me now, and
I am the more emboldened to speak with my successors in the tone of
a parent and a praiser of things past.
For, indeed, that which they attend is but a fallen University; it
has doubtless some remains of good, for human institutions decline
by gradual stages; but decline, in spite of all seeming
embellishments, it does; and what is perhaps more singular, began
to do so when I ceased to be a student. Thus, by an odd chance, I
had the very last of the very best of ALMA MATER; the same thing, I
hear (which makes it the more strange), had previously happened to
my father; and if they are good and do not die, something not at
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: between the rock; and as it ran it would eat that hole wider and
wider year by year, and make a swallow-hole--such as you may see
in plenty if you ever go up Whernside, or any of the high hills in
Yorkshire--unfathomable pits in the green turf, in which you may
hear the water tinkling and trickling far, far underground.
And now, before we go a step farther, you may understand, why the
bones of animals are so often found in limestone caves. Down such
swallow-holes how many beasts must fall: either in hurry and
fright, when hunted by lions and bears and such cruel beasts; or
more often still in time of snow, when the holes are covered with
drift; or, again, if they died on the open hill-sides, their bones
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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 The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: chessman and hold it poised a while over one of the little squares,
and then would put it back in its place with a long sigh of
disappointment. The young lady, at this, would slightly but
uneasily shift her position and look across, very hard, very long,
very strangely, at their dim participant. I had asked them at an
early stage of the business if it mightn't contribute to their
success to have some closer communication with him. The special
circumstances would surely be held to have given me a right to
introduce them. Corvick immediately replied that he had no wish to
approach the altar before he had prepared the sacrifice. He quite
agreed with our friend both as to the delight and as to the honour
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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 White Moll by Frank L. Packard: it - giving two raps, a single rap, and then two more in quick
succession. There was no answer. He knocked again in precisely
the same manner, and then a footstep sounded from within, and the
door was flung open. "Fools!" growled Shluker in greeting, as they
stepped inside and the door was closed again. "A pair of brainless
fools!"
There were two men there. They paid Shluker scant attention. They
both grinned at Rhoda Gray through the murky light supplied by a
wheezy and wholly inadequate gas-jet.
"Hello, Nan!" gibed the smaller of the two. "Who let you out?"
"Aw, forget it!" croaked Rhoda Gray.
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