| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: [1] A well-known physician. See Plat. "Phaedr." 227 A, 269 A; "Symp."
176 B. A similar story is told of Dr. Abernethy, I think.
[2] Lit. "he would live a happier, thriftier, and healthier life, if
he stopped eating."
And when some one else lamented that "the drinking-water in his house
was hot," he replied: "Then when you want a warm bath you will not
have to wait."
The Other. But for bathing purposes it is cold.
Soc. Do you find that your domestics seem to mind drinking it or
washing in it?
The Other. Quite the reverse; it is a constant marvel to me how
The Memorabilia |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: to play the sorrowing husband. I wore on my watch chain the ring
I had had made in imitation of the one my wife had worn. This
original ring of hers, her wedding ring which she had defiled,
I sent in the form of a bullet straight to her lover's heart.
Yes, I have committed a crime, but I feel that I am less criminal
than those two whom I judged and condemned, and whose sentence I
carried out as I now shall carry out my own sentence with a hand
which will not tremble. That I can do this myself, I have you to
thank for, you who can look into the souls of men and recognise
the most hidden motives, you who have not only a wonderful brain
but a heart that can feel. You, I hope, will sometimes think
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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 Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: indications of the utmost value on the manners, customs, and
cookery of the clerical race.
Having received a favorable answer to this request, the present
office has this day been put in possession of these proofs of the
worship in which our predecessors held the Goddess Bottle and good
living.
In consequence thereof, for the edification of our successors, and
to renew the chain of years and goblets, I, the said Godeschal,
have invited Messieurs Doublet, second clerk; Vassal, third clerk;
Herisson and Grandemain, clerks; and Dumets, sub-clerk, to
breakfast, Sunday next, at the "Cheval Rouge," on the Quai Saint-
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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 Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: eyes glued on the minister; the doctrine was clearly to his mind.
Charles Stewart, on the other hand, was half asleep, and looked
harassed and pale. As for Simon Fraser, he appeared like a blot, and
almost a scandal, in the midst of that attentive congregation, digging
his hands in his pockets, shifting his legs, clearing his throat, and
rolling up his bald eyebrows and shooting out his eyes to right and
left, now with a yawn, now with a secret smile. At times, too, he
would take the Bible in front of him, run it through, seem to read a
bit, run it through again, and stop and yawn prodigiously: the whole
as if for exercise.
In the course of this restlessness his eye alighted on myself. He sat
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