| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: just now?'
" 'That is possible.'
" 'Well, sir? do you not take my meaning?'
" 'I have not the honor of the acquaintance of my lady your wife,'
returned Gobseck. 'I have had a good many visitors this morning, women
and men, and mannish young ladies, and young gentlemen who look like
young ladies. I should find it very hard to say----'
" 'A truce to jesting, sir! I mean the woman who has this moment gone
out from you.'
" 'How can I know whether she is your wife or not? I never had the
pleasure of seeing you before.'
Gobseck |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Voice of the City by O. Henry: a million."
" He was," assented Gillian, joyously, " and that's
where the joke comes in. He's left his whole cargo of
doubloons to a microbe. That is, part of it goes to
the man who invents a new bacillus and the rest to es-
tablish a hospital for doing away with it again.
There are one or two trifling bequests on the side.
- the butler and the housekeeper get a seal ring and
$10 each. His nephew gets $1,000."
"You've always had plenty of money to spend,"
observed Old Bryson.
The Voice of the City |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: awhile, he was found to be quite an old acquaintance--to be, in fact,
the Greek Jove, and two or three other Greek gods, and also two or three
Egyptian gods beside--indeed, to be no other than the bull Apis, after
his death and deification. I can tell you no more. I never could find
that anything more was known. You may see him among Greek and Roman
statues as a young man, with a sort of high basket-shaped Persian turban
on his head. But, at least, he was found so pleasant and accommodating
a conscience-keeper, that he spread, with Isis, his newly-found mother,
or wife, over the whole East, and even to Rome. The Consuls there--50
years B.C.--found the pair not too respectable, and pulled down their
temples. But, so popular were they, in spite of their bad fame, that
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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 Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: China.' "
She is austere in manner, plain in appearance, dignified in
bearing, about sixty-five years of age, and is noted for her
accomplishment in making the most graceful courtesy of any lady
in the court.
During the Boxer troubles and the occupation, her palace was
plundered and very much injured, and she escaped in her stocking
feet through a side door. At the first luncheon given at her
palace thereafter, she apologized for its desolate appearance,
saying that it had been looted by the Boxers, though we knew it
had been looted by the allies. At later luncheons, however, she
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