| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Octopus by Frank Norris: He was a young fellow, but singularly inclined to baldness. His
ears, very red and large, stuck out at right angles from either
side of his head, and his mouth, too, was large--a great
horizontal slit beneath his nose. His cheeks were of a brownish
red, the cheek bones a little salient. His face was that of a
comic actor, a singer of songs, a man never at a loss for an
answer, continually striving to make a laugh. But he took no
great interest in ranching and left the management of his land to
his superintendents and foremen, he, himself, living in
Bonneville. He was a poser, a wearer of clothes, forever acting
a part, striving to create an impression, to draw attention to
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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 Purse by Honore de Balzac: you, others will see nothing at all. Will you allow me to
reproduce the likeness on canvas? It will be more permanently
recorded then than on that sheet of paper. Grant me, I beg, as a
neighborly favor, the pleasure of doing you this service. There
are times when an artist is glad of a respite from his greater
undertakings by doing work of less lofty pretensions, so it will
be a recreation for me to paint that head."
The old lady flushed as she heard the painter's words, and
Adelaide shot one of those glances of deep feeling which seem to
flash from the soul. Hippolyte wanted to feel some tie linking
him with his two neighbors, to conquer a right to mingle in their
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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 The Pupil by Henry James: him. As he left the villa after his interview he looked up at the
balcony and saw the child leaning over it. "We shall have great
larks!" he called up.
Morgan hung fire a moment and then gaily returned: "By the time
you come back I shall have thought of something witty!"
This made Pemberton say to himself "After all he's rather nice."
CHAPTER II
On the Friday he saw them all, as Mrs. Moreen had promised, for her
husband had come back and the girls and the other son were at home.
Mr. Moreen had a white moustache, a confiding manner and, in his
buttonhole, the ribbon of a foreign order - bestowed, as Pemberton
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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 Deserted Woman by Honore de Balzac: you are the only woman in the world. I cannot imagine life without
you, so I have made up my mind to leave France, and to risk my
life till I lose it in some desperate enterprise, in the Indies,
in Africa, I care not where. How can I quell a love that knows no
limits save by opposing to it something as infinite? Yet, if you
will allow me to hope, not to be yours, but to win your
friendship, I will stay. Let me come, not so very often, if you
require it, to spend a few such hours with you as those stolen
hours of yesterday. The keen delight of that brief happiness to be
cut short at the least over-ardent word from me, will suffice to
enable me to endure the boiling torrent in my veins. Have I
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