| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: fifty feet square, lighted by great squares of glass near the
top, and decorated with banners of rich brocade silks or satins,
of sober colours, blue, gray or white, on which were texts
extolling the virtues of the late Dowager or her family. These
were the gifts of friends, who had been coming and would continue
to come for days if not weeks.
At the north end as one came in at the gate was a gallery running
the whole length of the northern court, fitted up with special
hangings which separated it into different compartments. Many
elegant banners and decorations gave it a striking effect. This
was the place where the priests, who had not yet arrived, were 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 Euthyphro by Plato: what they love pious or holy; and what some of them love and others hate is
both or neither. Shall this be our definition of piety and impiety?
EUTHYPHRO: Why not, Socrates?
SOCRATES: Why not! certainly, as far as I am concerned, Euthyphro, there
is no reason why not. But whether this admission will greatly assist you
in the task of instructing me as you promised, is a matter for you to
consider.
EUTHYPHRO: Yes, I should say that what all the gods love is pious and
holy, and the opposite which they all hate, impious.
SOCRATES: Ought we to enquire into the truth of this, Euthyphro, or simply
to accept the mere statement on our own authority and that of others? What
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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 A Footnote to History by Robert Louis Stevenson: knowledge of men's natures. It chanced that one of Sewall's early
moves played into his hands, and he was swift to seize and to
improve the advantage. The neutral territory and the tripartite
municipality of Apia were eyesores to the German consulate and
Brandeis. By landing Tamasese's two or three hundred warriors at
Mulinuu, as Becker himself owns, they had infringed the treaties,
and Sewall entered protest twice. There were two ways of escaping
this dilemma: one was to withdraw the warriors; the other, by some
hocus-pocus, to abrogate the neutrality. And the second had
subsidiary advantages: it would restore the taxes of the richest
district in the islands to the Samoan king; and it would enable
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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 Beasts of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: and escaped him.
Already he was gloating over the days and nights of revenge
that would be his while the heavy dugout drifted its
slow way to the ocean.
Jane Clayton, working furiously to shove the boat beyond
his reach, suddenly realized that she was to be successful,
for with a little lurch the dugout swung quickly into the
current, just as the Russian reached out to place his hand
upon its bow.
His fingers did not miss their goal by a half-dozen inches.
The girl almost collapsed with the reaction from the terrific
The Beasts of Tarzan |
