| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Critias by Plato: three hundred feet in width and one hundred feet in depth and fifty stadia
in length, which they carried through to the outermost zone, making a
passage from the sea up to this, which became a harbour, and leaving an
opening sufficient to enable the largest vessels to find ingress.
Moreover, they divided at the bridges the zones of land which parted the
zones of sea, leaving room for a single trireme to pass out of one zone
into another, and they covered over the channels so as to leave a way
underneath for the ships; for the banks were raised considerably above the
water. Now the largest of the zones into which a passage was cut from the
sea was three stadia in breadth, and the zone of land which came next of
equal breadth; but the next two zones, the one of water, the other of land,
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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 Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: He had women riding donkeys followed by drivers, men riding
horses and shooting or throwing a spear at a fleeing tiger, and
women with babies in their arms while grandmother amused them
with rattles, and father lay near by smoking an opium pipe.
From the bottom of his basket he brought forth a nuber of small
packages.
"What are in those?"
"These are clay insects."
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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 Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: quiet studies, while all the world is gazing only at the gaslights
flaring in the street. They will pass that lamp on from hand to
hand, modestly, almost stealthily, till the day comes round again,
when the obscure student shall be discovered once more to be, as he
has always been, the strongest man on earth. For they follow a
mistress whose footsteps may often slip, yet never fall; for she
walks forward on the eternal facts of Nature, which are the acted
will of God. A giantess she is; young indeed, but humble as yet:
cautious and modest beyond her years. She is accused of trying to
scale Olympus, by some who fancy that they have already scaled it
themselves, and will, of course, brook no rival in their fancied
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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 Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: Ann Eliza's agitation, sharpened by concealment, actually preyed
upon her rest; and it was not till the present had been given, and
she had unbosomed herself of the experiences connected with its
purchase, that she could look back with anything like composure to
that stirring moment of her life. From that day forward, however,
she began to take a certain tranquil pleasure in thinking of Mr.
Ramy's small shop, not unlike her own in its countrified obscurity,
though the layer of dust which covered its counter and shelves made
the comparison only superficially acceptable. Still, she did not
judge the state of the shop severely, for Mr. Ramy had told her
that he was alone in the world, and lone men, she was aware, did
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