| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: yesterday by a wise man, Prodicus of Ceos; but the audience thought that he
was talking mere nonsense, and no one could be persuaded that he was
speaking the truth. And when at last a certain talkative young gentleman
came in, and, taking his seat, began to laugh and jeer at Prodicus,
tormenting him and demanding an explanation of his argument, he gained the
ear of the audience far more than Prodicus.
Can you repeat the discourse to us? Said Erasistratus.
SOCRATES: If I can only remember it, I will. The youth began by asking
Prodicus, In what way did he think that riches were a good and in what an
evil? Prodicus answered, as you did just now, that they were a good to
good men and to those who knew in what way they should be employed, while
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: herself witnessed. Yet there were so many difficulties in
assigning a natural explanation, that, to the day of her death,
she remained in great doubt on the subject, and much disposed to
cut the Gordian knot by admitting the existence of supernatural
agency."
"But, my dear aunt," said I, "what became of the man of skill?"
"Oh, he was too good a fortune-teller not to be able to foresee
that his own destiny would be tragical if he waited the arrival
of the man with the silver greyhound upon his sleeve. He made,
as we say, a moonlight flitting, and was nowhere to be seen or
heard of. Some noise there was about papers or letters found in
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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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: gave it her as a plaything, and she has broken it: a fine Prince, an
admirable Princess! Even her life - I ask you, Gotthold, is her
life safe?'
'It is safe enough to-day,' replied the librarian: 'but since you
ask me seriously, I would not answer for to-morrow. She is ill-
advised.'
'And by whom? By this Gondremark, to whom you counsel me to leave
my country,' cried the Prince. 'Rare advice! The course that I
have been following all these years, to come at last to this. O,
ill-advised! if that were all! See now, there is no sense in
beating about the bush between two men: you know what scandal says
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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 Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: guessing that the orderly was only laughing at him as usual,
paid no attention to the remark, and only meditated upon
the means he could devise to get every bit of the money
in the new world into his own possession. No one grieved
over the life of solitude which Hakkabut persisted in leading.
Ben Zoof giggled heartily, as he repeatedly observed "it was
astonishing how they reconciled themselves to his absence."
The time came, however, when various circumstances prompted him
to think he must renew his intercourse with the inhabitants of
the Hive. Some of his goods were beginning to spoil, and he felt
the necessity of turning them into money, if he would not be a loser;
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