| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: will raise your wife to your rank; that is the most substantial
privilege left to the French noblesse. Did not M. de Talleyrand marry
Mme. Grandt without compromising his position? Remember that Louis
XIV. took the Widow Scarron for his wife."
"He did not marry her for her money," interposed Mlle. Armande.
"If the Comtesse d'Esgrignon were one du Croisier's niece, for
instance, would you receive her?" asked Chesnel.
"Perhaps," replied the Duchess; "but the King, beyond all doubt, would
be very glad to see her.--So you do not know what is going on in the
world?" continued she, seeing the amazement in their faces.
"Victurnien has been in Paris; he knows how things go there. We had
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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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: connected in my mind with cannons and gunpowder.
When I woke up on the morning of the tenth of May, nurse told me
in a whisper that "my uncle had come." I dressed rapidly, and,
washing after a fashion, flew out of my bedroom without saying my
prayers. In the vestibule I came upon a tall, solid gentleman
with fashionable whiskers and a foppish-looking overcoat. Half
dead with devout awe, I went up to him and, remembering the
ceremonial mother had impressed upon me, I scraped my foot before
him, made a very low bow, and craned forward to kiss his hand;
but the gentleman did not allow me to kiss his hand: he informed
me that he was not my uncle, but my uncle's footman, Pyotr. The
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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 New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: there was another motive growing in along with the first, it was
not one which, at that period, I could have properly explained to
the lady of my heart.
Certainly, that night, I thought of no one else; and, though her
whole conduct and position seemed suspicious, I could not find it
in my heart to entertain a doubt of her integrity. I could have
staked my life that she was clear of blame, and, though all was
dark at the present, that the explanation of the mystery would show
her part in these events to be both right and needful. It was
true, let me cudgel my imagination as I pleased, that I could
invent no theory of her relations to Northmour; but I felt none the
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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 Phaedrus by Plato: entertained by them towards their beloved, but they do their utmost to
create in him the greatest likeness of themselves and of the god whom they
honour. Thus fair and blissful to the beloved is the desire of the
inspired lover, and the initiation of which I speak into the mysteries of
true love, if he be captured by the lover and their purpose is effected.
Now the beloved is taken captive in the following manner:--
As I said at the beginning of this tale, I divided each soul into three--
two horses and a charioteer; and one of the horses was good and the other
bad: the division may remain, but I have not yet explained in what the
goodness or badness of either consists, and to that I will now proceed.
The right-hand horse is upright and cleanly made; he has a lofty neck and
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