| 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: not have been of the greatest possible benefit to the country if
they had been put into operation. If the Emperor had been allowed
to proceed, making them all as effective as he did the Imperial
University, and if the ministers and provincial authorities had
responded to his call, and had made "some effort to understand
what he was trying to do," China might have by this time been
close upon the heels of Japan in the adoption of Western ideas.
As the edicts continued to come out in such quick succession my
Hanlin friend became alarmed. He came to me one day after the
Emperor had censured the officials for trying to delay the
establishment of the Imperial University and said:
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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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: afraid of him. Would you believe it, our teachers were all
intellectual, right-minded people, brought up on Turgenev and
Shtchedrin, yet this little chap, who always went about with
goloshes and an umbrella, had the whole high-school under his
thumb for fifteen long years! High-school, indeed -- he had the
whole town under his thumb! Our ladies did not get up private
theatricals on Saturdays for fear he should hear of it, and the
clergy dared not eat meat or play cards in his presence. Under
the influence of people like Byelikov we have got into the way of
being afraid of everything in our town for the last ten or
fifteen years. They are afraid to speak aloud, afraid to send
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