The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells: ' "From Holland to the Alps this day," I thought, "there must be
crouching and lying between half and a million of men, trying to
inflict irreparable damage upon one another. The thing is idiotic
to the pitch of impossibility. It is a dream. Presently I shall
wake up." . . .
'Then the phrase changed itself in my mind. "Presently mankind
will wake up."
'I lay speculating just how many thousands of men there were
among these hundreds of thousands, whose spirits were in
rebellion against all these ancient traditions of flag and
empire. Weren't we, perhaps, already in the throes of the last
 The Last War: A World Set Free |
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 An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: /berlingot/ as it turned through the iron gates and took the road to
Troyes. Laurence repeated the old man's last words. But sage
experience should not present itself to the eyes of youth in a
/berlingot/, colored stockings, and a queue. These ardent young hearts
had no conception of the change that had passed over France;
indignation crisped their nerves, honor boiled with their noble blood
through every vein.
"He, the head of the house of Chargeboeuf!" said the Marquis de
Simeuse. "A man who bears the motto /Adsit fortior/, the noblest of
warcries!"
"We are no longer in the days of Saint-Louis," said the younger
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