| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: of the drama.
When Yuan went to Tientsin as Viceroy of the metropolitan
province he found there Dr. C. D. Tenny, the president of the
Tientsin University which had been begun by Li Hung-chang some
ten or a dozen years before. It had a good course of study and
was turning out a large number of young graduates for whom there
ought to be a better future than that of interpreters in the
various business houses of that and other cities. He therefore
called Dr. Tenny to him and inquired particularly about the
system of public school education throughout the United States.
"What is to prevent our putting into operation such a system
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Recruit by Honore de Balzac: living, and on his way," replied Brigitte. "I put a key in the Bible,
and I held it on my fingers while Cottin read a chapter in the gospel
of Saint John; and, madame, the key never turned at all!"
"Is that a good sign?" asked the countess.
"Oh! madame, that's a well-known sign. I would wager my salvation, he
still lives. God would not so deceive us."
"Ah! if he would only come--no matter for his danger here."
"Poor Monsieur Auguste!" cried Brigitte, "he must be toiling along the
roads on foot."
"There's eight o'clock striking now," cried the countess, in terror.
She dared not stay away any longer from her guests; but before
|
