| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: loopholed, and in a good state of preservation. The streets are
sixty feet wide,--or even more in places,--well macadamized, and
lit with electric light. The chief mode of conveyance is the
'ricksha, though carriages may be hired by the week, day or hour
at various livery stables in proximity to the hotels, which, by
the way, furnish as good accommodation to their guests as the
hotels of other Oriental cities.
In the centre of the Tartar City is the Imperial City, eight
miles in circumference, encircled by a wall six feet thick and
fifteen feet high, pierced by four gates at the points of the
compass; and in the centre of this again is the Forbidden City,
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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 Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: the tenderest and most generous sympathy for his unhappy friend.
XIII
Sunt hie etiam sua proemia laudi,
Sunt lachrymae rerum, et mentem mortalia tangunt.
VIRGIL.
E'en the mute walls relate the victim's fame.
And sinner's tears the good man's pity claim.
DRYDEN.
"We set sail; the wind continued favourable during the entire
passage. I obtained from the captain's kindness a separate cabin
for the use of Manon and myself. He was so good as to
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