| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Astoria by Washington Irving: of Mr. Astor, whose property he considers at the mercy of a most
heterogeneous and wasteful crew.
As to the clerks, he pronounced them mere pretenders, not one of
whom had ever been among the Indians, nor farther to the
northwest than Montreal, nor of higher rank than barkeeper of a
tavern or marker of a billiard-table, excepting one, who had been
a school-master, and whom he emphatically sets down for "as
foolish a pedant as ever lived."
Then as to the artisans and laborers who had been brought from
Canada and shipped at such expense, the three most respectable,
according to the captain's account, were culprits, who had fled
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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 Jolly Corner by Henry James: keenness - by the tremendous force of analogy. He found himself at
moments - once he had placed his single light on some mantel-shelf
or in some recess - stepping back into shelter or shade, effacing
himself behind a door or in an embrasure, as he had sought of old
the vantage of rock and tree; he found himself holding his breath
and living in the joy of the instant, the supreme suspense created
by big game alone.
He wasn't afraid (though putting himself the question as he
believed gentlemen on Bengal tiger-shoots or in close quarters with
the great bear of the Rockies had been known to confess to having
put it); and this indeed - since here at least he might be frank! -
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