| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: thus forever retain its peculiar individuality, being, as it
were, marked off from its neighbour vortex-rings. Upon this
mechanical truth Sir William Thomson based his wonderfully
suggestive theory of the constitution of matter. That which is
permanent or indestructible in matter is the ultimate homogeneous
atom; and this is probably all that is permanent, since chemists
now almost unanimously hold that so-called elementary molecules
are not really simple, but owe their sensible differences to the
various groupings of an ultimate atom which is alike for all.
Relatively to our powers of comprehension the atom endures
eternally; that is, it retains forever unalterable its definite
 The Unseen World and Other Essays |
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 Illustrious Gaudissart by Honore de Balzac: should be overthrown for you personally. The payment of the premium is
all that is required to protect--"
"The money-box," said the lunatic, sharply interrupting him.
"Ah! naturally; yes. I see that Monsieur understands business."
"Yes," said the madman. "I established the Territorial Bank in the Rue
des Fosses-Montmartre at Paris in 1798."
"For," resumed Gaudissart, going back to his premium, "in order to
meet the payments on the intellectual capital which each man
recognizes and esteems in himself, it is of course necessary that each
should pay a certain premium, three per cent; an annual due of three
per cent. Thus, by the payment of this trifling sum, a mere nothing,
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