| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Distinguished Provincial at Paris by Honore de Balzac: am I in the galleys, and the arrival of another convict gives me
pleasure. We are cleverer, Blondet and I, than Messieurs This and
That, who speculate in our abilities, yet nevertheless we are always
exploited by them. We have a heart somewhere beneath the intellect; we
have NOT the grim qualities of the man who makes others work for him.
We are indolent, we like to look on at the game, we are meditative,
and we are fastidious; they will sweat our brains and blame us for
improvidence."
"I thought you would be more amusing than this!" said Florine.
"Florine is right," said Blondet; "let us leave the cure of public
evils to those quacks the statesmen. As Charlet says, 'Quarrel with my
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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 Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: book.
Without the doors of this assembly there attended a vast number of
light, nimble gods, menial servants to Jupiter: those are his
ministering instruments in all affairs below. They travel in a
caravan, more or less together, and are fastened to each other like
a link of galley-slaves, by a light chain, which passes from them
to Jupiter's great toe: and yet, in receiving or delivering a
message, they may never approach above the lowest step of his
throne, where he and they whisper to each other through a large
hollow trunk. These deities are called by mortal men accidents or
events; but the gods call them second causes. Jupiter having
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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 Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: deliberately tell you its results. You know there is a tendency in
the minds of many men, when they are heavily disappointed in the
main purposes of their life, to feel, and perhaps in warning,
perhaps in mockery, to declare, that life itself is a vanity.
Because it has disappointed them, they think its nature is of
disappointment always, or at best, of pleasure that can be grasped
by imagination only; that the cloud of it has no strength nor fire
within; but is a painted cloud only, to be delighted in, yet
despised. You know how beautifully Pope has expressed this
particular phase of thought:-
"Meanwhile opinion gilds, with varying rays,
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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 White Moll by Frank L. Packard: feeling with her hands along the wall she reached the stairs and
began to make her way upward. She had found Gypsy Nan last night
huddled in the lower doorway, and apparently in a condition that
was very much the worse for wear. She had stopped and helped the
woman upstairs to her garret, whereupon Gypsy Nan, in language far
more fervent than elegant, had ordered her to begone, and had
slammed the door in her face.
Rhoda Gray smiled a little wearily, as, on the second floor now,
she groped her way to the rear, and began to mount a short,
ladder-like flight of steps to the attic. Gypsy Nan's lack of
cordiality did not absolve her, Rhoda Gray, from coming back
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