| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: the good in all things; where he has even a fear that he does
not wholly understand, there he should be wholly silent; and
he should recognise from the first that he has only one tool
in his workshop, and that tool is sympathy. (13)
The second duty, far harder to define, is moral. There are a
thousand different humours in the mind, and about each of
them, when it is uppermost, some literature tends to be
deposited. Is this to be allowed? Not certainly in every
case, and yet perhaps in more than rigourists would fancy.
It were to be desired that all literary work, and chiefly
works of art, issued from sound, human, healthy, and potent
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: tried this method of eluding death."
"Could the wise Egyptians," said Nekayah, "think so grossly of the
soul? If the soul could once survive its separation, what could it
afterwards receive or suffer from the body?"
"The Egyptians would doubtless think erroneously," said the
astronomer, "in the darkness of heathenism and the first dawn of
philosophy. The nature of the soul is still disputed amidst all
our opportunities of clearer knowledge; some yet say that it may be
material, who, nevertheless, believe it to be immortal."
"Some," answered Imlac, "have indeed said that the soul is
material, but I can scarcely believe that any man has thought it
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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 Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: fact no one, according to him, knew how to boil an egg properly; he
did it watch in hand, and boasted that he carried off the palm of egg-
boiling from all the world. For two years he had boiled his eggs with
a success which earned him many witticisms. But now, every night for a
whole month, the eggs were taken from his hen-house, and hard-boiled
eggs substituted. The sub-prefect was at his wits' end, and lost his
reputation as the "sous-prefet a l'oeuf." Finally he was forced to
breakfast on other things. Yet he never suspected the Knights of
Idleness, whose trick had been cautiously played. After this, Max
managed to grease the sub-prefect's stoves every night with an oil
which sent forth so fetid a smell that it was impossible for any one
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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 Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: O master Cobbler, you are far deceived in me, for don
you see this? I come not to buy any shoes, but to buy
your self; come, sir, you must be a soldier in the king's
cause.
STRUMBO.
Why, but hear you, sir; has your king any commission to
take any man against his will. I promise you, I can scant
believe it; or did he give you commission?
CAPTAIN.
O sir, ye need not care for that; I need no commission.
Hold, here: I command you, in the name of our king
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