| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: practised with the long-bow; and sometimes, in stormy times,
turned out for a few months as ready-trained soldiers, and, like
Ulysses of old,
Drank delight of battle with their peers,
and then returned again to the workshop and the loom. The very
mayor and alderman went forth, at five o'clock on the summer's
morning, with hawk and leaping-pole, after a duck and heron; or
hunted the hare in state, probably in the full glory of furred
gown and gold chain; and then returned to breakfast, and doubtless
transacted their day's business all the better for their morning's
gallop on the breezy downs.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: his waistcoat; he head was flung far back, his eyes gazed out into
space.
"Ah! I say, Topinard, have you independent means?"
"No, sir."
"Are you on the lookout to better yourself somewhere else?"
"No, sir--" said Topinard, with a ghastly countenance.
"Why, hang it all, your wife takes the first row of boxes out of
respect to my predecessor, who came to grief; I gave you the job of
cleaning the lamps in the wings in the daytime, and you put out the
scores. And that is not all, either. You get twenty sous for acting
monsters and managing devils when a hell is required. There is not a
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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 Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: hand."
"But you may be sent back to the dark cells: then, what will you do?"
said the public prosecutor.
"Oh! we are to play the game out then!" said Jacques Collin. "I was
speaking as man to man--I was talking to Monsieur de Granville. But if
the public prosecutor is my adversary, I take up the cards and hold
them close.--And if only you had given me your word, I was ready to
give you back the letters that Mademoiselle Clotilde de Grandlieu----"
This was said with a tone, an audacity, and a look which showed
Monsieur de Granville, that against such an adversary the least
blunder was dangerous.
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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 Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: happiness, fill the air with their mournful, dreary notes.
Meliton plodded along to the river, and heard the sounds of the
pipe gradually dying away behind him. He still wanted to
complain. He looked dejectedly about him, and he felt
insufferably sorry for the sky and the earth and the sun and the
woods and his Damka, and when the highest drawn-out note of the
pipe floated quivering in the air, like a voice weeping, he felt
extremely bitter and resentful of the impropriety in the conduct
of nature.
The high note quivered, broke off, and the pipe was silent.
AGAFYA
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