| 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: upon for an explanation, which she gave in Japanese. While this
class was reciting the Prince came in and asked if we might not
have calisthenics, evidently thinking that I would enjoy the
drill more than the mathematics. It was interesting to see those
Manchu ladies stand and go through a thorough physical drill to
the tune of a lively march on a foreign organ. The Japanese are
masters in matters of physical drill, and in the schools I have
visited I have been pleased at the quiet dignity, and the reserve
force and sweetness of their Japanese teachers. The precision and
unanimity with which orders were executed both surprised and
delighted me. Everything about these schools was good except the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: legislative heads, which, great as they may be in themselves, are
belittled and lost in a crowd. Rigou's law contains the essential
element which has yet to be found and introduced into public law to
put an end to the absurd spectacle of landed property reduced to
halves, quarters, tenths, hundredths,--as in the district of
Argenteuil, where there are thirty thousand plots of land.
Such operations as those Rigou was concerned in require extensive
collusion, like those we have seen existing in this arrondissement.
Lupin, the notary, whom Rigou employed to draw at least one third of
the deeds annually entrusted to his notarial office, was devoted to
him. This shark could thus include in the mortgage note (signed always
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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 Straight Deal by Owen Wister: stiff at first, unbent later. Under sundry missionary impulses, more
Americans than British had recently settled along the Columbia River and
in the Willamette Valley. People from Missouri followed. You may read of
our impatient violence in Professor Dunning's book, The British Empire
and the United States. Indeed, this volume tells at length everything I
am telling you briefly about these boundary disputes. The settlers wished
to be under our Government. Virtually upon their preference the matter
was finally adjusted. England met us with a compromise, advantageous to
us and reasonable for herself. Thus, again, was her conduct moderate
and pacific. If you think that this was through fear of us, I can only
leave you to our western blow-hards of 1845, or to your anti-British
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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 Nana, Miller's Daughter, Captain Burle, Death of Olivier Becaille by Emile Zola: turned round and interrupted herself.
"It's Monsieur le Comte Muffat, darling. He saw a light here while
he was strolling past, and he came in to bid us welcome."
The two men clasped hands. Muffat, with his face in shadow, stood
silent for a moment or two. Steiner seemed sulky. Then they
chatted about Paris: business there was at a standstill; abominable
things had been happening on 'change. When a quarter of an hour had
elapsed Muffat took his departure, and, as the young woman was
seeing him to the door, he tried without success to make an
assignation for the following night. Steiner went up to bed almost
directly afterward, grumbling, as he did so, at the everlasting
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