| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: resemblance to the muzzle of a fox, but his lofty, projecting
forehead, with many lines, showed great and splendid qualities and a
nobility of soul, the springs of which had been lowered by experience
until the cruel teachings of life had driven it back into the farthest
recesses of this most singular human being. He was certainly not an
ordinary miser; and his passion covered, no doubt, extreme enjoyments
and secret conceptions.
"What is the present rate of Venetian sequins?" he said abruptly to
his future apprentice.
"Three-quarters at Brussels; one in Ghent."
"What is the freight on the Scheldt?"
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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 Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland:
We find the same thing in Chinese Mother Goose. Take the
following as an example:
He ate too much,
That second brother,
And when he had eaten his fill
He beat his mother.
This was the original rhyme. Two verses have been added without
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