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: constitution, modelled after that of Japan, should be given to
China at as early a date as possible.
The leader of this expedition, His Excellency the Viceroy Tuan
Fang, is one of the greatest, if not the greatest living Manchu
statesman. Like Yuan Shih-kai, during the Boxer uprising, he
protected all the foreigners within his domains. That he
appreciates the work done by Americans in the opening up of China
is evidenced by a statement made in his address at the Waldorf
Astoria, in February, 1906, in which he said:
"We take pleasure this evening in bearing testimony to the part
taken by American missionaries in promoting the progress of 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 A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: miles an hour. The sun glared down on their heads mercilessly, and
there was no shade or prospect of shade. Maskull sat down near the
edge, and periodically splashed water over his head. Gangnet sat on
his haunches next to him. Krag paced up and down with short, quick
steps, like an animal in a cage. The lake widened out more and more,
and the width of the stream increased in proportion, until they
seemed to themselves to be floating on the bosom of some broad,
flowing estuary.
Krag suddenly bent over and snatched off Gangnet's hat, crushing it
together in his hairy fist and throwing it far out into the stream.
"Why should you disguise yourself like a woman?" he asked with a
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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 The Passionate Pilgrim by William Shakespeare: To win me soon to hell, my female evil
Tempteth my better angel from my side,
And would corrupt my saint to be a devil,
Wooing his purity with her fair pride.
And whether that my angel be turn'd fiend,
Suspect I may, yet not directly tell:
For being both to me, both to each friend,
I guess one angel in another's hell:
The truth I shall not know, but live in doubt,
Till my bad angel fire my good one out.
III.
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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 Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: extremely odd behavior. Generations ago the tribe had in some
obscure fashion contracted a parasite which induced a seemingly
permanent delirium in each native, and which was passed on to
subsequent generations. The delirium increased with age, and most
of the adult natives showed it by eating dirt, sleeping on dunghills,
pummeling anthills with rocks even as the ants bit them severely, and
jumping out of trees onto their heads. This last maneuver caused the
natives to stagger around senseless for days, or simply to lie
unconscious and bleeding in the sun and rain. All these symptoms
together prevented the natives from caring for their personal lives,
and so they lived in deplorable squalor, with their huts falling
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