| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: morning. I'll take the five thousand dollars in large bills, if it's
handy.'
"George B. hustles out of his tent, and asks me to follow. We went
into one of the side-shows. In there was a jet black pig with a pink
ribbon around his neck lying on some hay and eating carrots that a man
was feeding to him.
"'Hey, Mac,' calls G. B. 'Nothing wrong with the world-wide this
morning, is there?'
"'Him? No,' says the man. 'He's got an appetite like a chorus girl at
1 A.M.'
"'How'd you get this pipe?' says Tapley to me. 'Eating too many pork
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Bab:A Sub-Deb, Mary Roberts Rinehart by Mary Roberts Rinehart: that the dancing master had one eye and three children, and that
the clergyman at school was elderly, with two wives. One dead.
I searched my Past, but it was blameless. It was empty and bare,
and as I looked back and saw how little there had been in it but
imbibing wisdom and playing basket-ball and tennis, and typhoid
fever when I was fourteen and almost having to have my head shaved,
a great wave of bitterness agatated me.
"Never again," I observed to myself with firmness. "Never again, If
I have to invent a member of the Other Sex."
At that time, however, owing to the appearance of Hannah with a
mending basket, I got no further than his name.
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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 Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: know you have really said something very profound!" Madame Rabourdin
said of her husband: "He certainly has a good deal of sense at times."
Her disparaging opinion of him gradually appeared in her behavior
through almost imperceptible motions. Her attitude and manners
expressed a want of respect. Without being aware of it she injured her
husband in the eyes of others; for in all countries society, before
making up its mind about a man, listens for what his wife thinks of
him, and obtains from her what the Genevese term "pre-advice."
When Rabourdin became aware of the mistakes which love had led him to
commit it was too late,--the groove had been cut; he suffered and was
silent. Like other men in whom sentiments and ideas are of equal
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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 Timaeus by Plato: empty places filled.
Now the process of repletion and evacuation is effected after the manner of
the universal motion by which all kindred substances are drawn towards one
another. For the external elements which surround us are always causing us
to consume away, and distributing and sending off like to like; the
particles of blood, too, which are divided and contained within the frame
of the animal as in a sort of heaven, are compelled to imitate the motion
of the universe. Each, therefore, of the divided parts within us, being
carried to its kindred nature, replenishes the void. When more is taken
away than flows in, then we decay, and when less, we grow and increase.
The frame of the entire creature when young has the triangles of each kind
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