| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: and matter, the continuous and the discrete, cause and effect, are
perpetually being severed from one another in thought, only to be
perpetually reunited. The finite and infinite, the absolute and relative
are not really opposed; the finite and the negation of the finite are alike
lost in a higher or positive infinity, and the absolute is the sum or
correlation of all relatives. When this reconciliation of opposites is
finally completed in all its stages, the mind may come back again and
review the things of sense, the opinions of philosophers, the strife of
theology and politics, without being disturbed by them. Whatever is, if
not the very best--and what is the best, who can tell?--is, at any rate,
historical and rational, suitable to its own age, unsuitable to any other.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: that that was impossible, but that her husband had given her some
medicine which was working splendidly. The young de Lamotte
called to see his mother. Derues took him into her room; in the
dim light the boy saw her sleeping, and crept out quietly for
fear of disturbing her. The Derues and their friends sat down to
dinner. Derues kept jumping up and running into the sick room,
from which a horrible smell began to pervade the house. But
Derues was radiant at the success of his medicine. "Was there
ever such a nurse as I am?" he exclaimed. Bertin remarked that
he thought it was a woman's and not a man's place to nurse a lady
under such distressing circumstances. Derues protested that it
 A Book of Remarkable Criminals |