| 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: system, and the terms Being, Not-being, existence, essence, notion, and the
like challenged and defined. For if Hegel introduces a great many
distinctions, he obliterates a great many others by the help of the
universal solvent 'is not,' which appears to be the simplest of negations,
and yet admits of several meanings. Neither are we able to follow him in
the play of metaphysical fancy which conducts him from one determination of
thought to another. But we begin to suspect that this vast system is not
God within us, or God immanent in the world, and may be only the invention
of an individual brain. The 'beyond' is always coming back upon us however
often we expel it. We do not easily believe that we have within the
compass of the mind the form of universal knowledge. We rather incline to
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: Till into the air it faded,
Till into the ground it vanished,
And the young man saw before him,
On the hearth-stone of the wigwam,
Where the fire had smoked and smouldered,
Saw the earliest flower of Spring-time,
Saw the Beauty of the Spring-time,
Saw the Miskodeed in blossom.
Thus it was that in the North-land
After that unheard-of coldness,
That intolerable Winter,
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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: Pierrotin, the master of the line of coaches running through the
valley of the Oise (despatching one through Saint-Leu-Taverny and
Isle-Adam to Beaumont), would scarcely have recognized in this bronzed
and maimed officer the little Oscar Husson he had formerly taken to
Presles. Madame Husson, at last a widow, was as little recognizable as
her son. Clapart, a victim of Fieschi's machine, had served his wife
better by death than by all his previous life. The idle lounger was
hanging about, as usual, on the boulevard du Temple, gazing at the
show, when the explosion came. The poor widow was put upon the pension
list, made expressly for the families of the victim, at fifteen
hundred francs a year.
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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 Mysterious Affair at Styles by Agatha Christie: solitary piece of evidence against him."
"Then, all the time, it was in the spill vase in Mrs.
Inglethorp's bedroom, under our very noses?" I cried.
Poirot nodded.
"Yes, my friend. That is where I discovered my 'last link,' and
I owe that very fortunate discovery to you."
"To me?"
"Yes. Do you remember telling me that my hand shook as I was
straightening the ornaments on the mantel-piece?"
"Yes, but I don't see----"
"No, but I saw. Do you know, my friend, I remembered that
The Mysterious Affair at Styles |
