| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Tramp Abroad by Mark Twain: that tranquil contemptuousness, conquered me, and I struck
my colors. Now I knew she was used to receiving about a
penny from manly people who care nothing about the opinions
of scullery-maids, and about tuppence from moral cowards;
but I laid a silver twenty-five cent piece within her
reach and tried to shrivel her up with this sarcastic
speech:
"If it isn't enough, will you stoop sufficiently from
your official dignity to say so?"
She did not shrivel. Without deigning to look at me at all,
she languidly lifted the coin and bit it!--to see if it
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: "I was glad to get your acceptance."
When I went down to the dinner-table, Juno sat in her best clothes, still
discussing the Daughters of Dixie.
I can't say that I took much more heed of this at dinner than I had done
at tea; but I was interested to hear Juno mention that she, too, intended
to call upon Hortense Rieppe. Kings Port, she said, must take a
consistent position; and for her part, so far as behavior went, she
didn't see much to choose between the couple. "As to whether Mr. Mayrant
had really concealed the discovery of his fortune," she continued, "I
asked Miss Josephine--in a perfectly nice way, of course. But old Mr. St.
Michael Beaugarcon, who has always had the estate in charge, did that. It
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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 A Voyage to Abyssinia by Father Lobo: we arrived at Abyssinia, many, who were forced to leave their
habitations, and seek the necessaries of life in other places, came
to that part of the land where some of our missionaries were
preaching, and laid hold on that mercy which God seemed to have
appointed for others.
As we could not go to court before November, we resolved, that we
might not be idle, to preach and instruct the people in the country;
in pursuance of this resolution I was sent to a mountain, two days'
journey distant from Maigoga. The lord or governor of the place was
a Catholic, and had desired missionaries, but his wife had conceived
an implacable aversion both from us and the Roman Church, and almost
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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 La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: The dining-room was sitting-room and drawing-room all in one for the
little family. The house was furnished very simply but tastefully;
there was nothing superfluous in it, and no trace of luxury. The
walnut-wood furniture chosen by the stranger lady was perfectly plain,
and the whole charm of the house consisted in its neatness and harmony
with its surroundings.
It was rather difficult, therefore, to say whether the strange lady
(Mme. Willemsens, as she styled herself) belonged to the upper middle
or higher classes, or to an equivocal, unclassified feminine species.
Her plain dress gave rise to the most contradictory suppositions, but
her manners might be held to confirm those favorable to her. She had
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