| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Summer by Edith Wharton: what's left inside the house. And I should like to
have a talk with the people. Who was it who was
telling me the other day that they had come down from
the Mountain?"
Charity shot a sideward look at him. It was the first
time he had spoken of the Mountain except as a feature
of the landscape. What else did he know about it, and
about her relation to it? Her heart began to beat with
the fierce impulse of resistance which she
instinctively opposed to every imagined slight.
"The Mountain? I ain't afraid of the Mountain!"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mountains by Stewart Edward White: to get the notion into their heads that all we wanted
them to do was to get on the inside and stand still.
About half of them were terrified to death, so that
at the crucial moment, just as a horse was passing
them, they had little fluttering panics that called the
beast's attention. Most of the remainder tried to be
bold and help. They reached out the hand of
assistance toward the halter rope; the astonished animal
promptly snorted, tried to turn around, cannoned
against the next in line. Then there was a mix-up.
Two tall clean-cut well-bred looking girls of our slim
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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 Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland by Olive Schreiner: The stranger said: "And if he should curse yet further, and say, 'There is
not one man nor woman in South Africa I cannot buy with my money! When I
have the Transvaal, I shall buy God Almighty Himself, if I care to!'
"Then say to him this one thing only, 'Thy money perish with thee!' and
leave him."
There was a dead silence for a moment. Then the stranger stretched forth
his hand. 'Yet in that leaving him, remember;--It is not the act, but the
will, which marks the soul of the man. He who has crushed a nation sins no
more than he who rejoices in the death throe of the meanest creature. The
stagnant pool is not less poisonous drop for drop than the mighty swamp,
though its reach be smaller. He who has desired to be and accomplish what
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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 Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: in obscure places, and that in the flattest inanity you may chance
upon an angle. Yes, dear boy, such and such a philistine is to such
another as Raphael is to Natoire.
"Mme. Desroches, the widowed mother, had long ago planned this
marriage for her son, in spite of a tremendous obstacle which took the
shape of one Cochin, Matifat's partner's son, a young clerk in the
adult department. M. and Mme. Matifat were of the opinion that an
attorney's position 'gave some guarantee for a wife's happiness,' to
use their own expression; and as for Desroches, he was prepared to
fall in with his mother's views in case he could do no better for
himself. Wherefore, he kept up his acquaintance with the druggists in
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