| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bureaucracy by Honore de Balzac: replied des Lupeaulx. "Madame," he continued, addressing the countess,
"it is now an absolute necessity to invite Madame Rabourdin to your
next private party. I must assure you she is the intimate friend of
Madame de Camps; they were at the Opera together last night. I first
met her at the hotel Firmiani. Besides, you will see that she is not
of a kind to compromise a salon."
"Invite Madame Rabourdin, my dear," said the minister, "and pray let
us talk of something else."
CHAPTER VII
SCENES FROM DOMESTIC LIFE
Parisian households are literally eaten up with the desire to be in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: but because there is written on it a letter out of Madam How's
alphabet, which has taken wise men many a year to decipher. I
could not decipher that letter when first I saw the stone. More
shame for me, for I had seen it often before, and understood it
well enough, in many another page of Madam How's great book. Take
the stone, and see if you can find out anything strange about it.
Well, it is only a bit of marble as big as my hand, that looks as
if it had been, and really has been, broken off by a hammer. But
when you look again, you see there is a smooth scraped part on one
edge, that seems to have been rubbed against a stone.
Now look at that rubbed part, and tell me how it was done.
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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 Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,
In there stepped a stately Raven of the saintly days of yore.
Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he,
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door--
Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door--
Perched, and sat, and nothing more.
Then the ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,
By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,
"Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou," I said, "art sure no craven,
Ghastly grim and ancient Raven wandering from the Nightly shore--
Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!"
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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 Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: degree discussions inside the Communist Party, and those
discussions are the simple fact distinguishing the Communist
Dictatorship from any of the other dictatorships by
which it may be supplanted.
There are 600,000 members of the Communist Party
(611,978 on April 2, 1920). There are nineteen members of
the Central Committee of that party. There are, I believe,
five who, when they agree, can usually sway the remaining
fourteen. There is no need to wonder how these fourteen
can be argued into acceptance of the views of the still
smaller inner ring, but the process of persuading the six
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