| 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: "It is a poor rule that will not work both ways. Have you never
noticed that in his edicts the Emperor speaks of his Manchu
slaves and his Chinese subjects?"
Among my lady friends is one whose father died when she was a
child, and she was brought up in the home of her grandfather who
was himself a viceroy. She had always been accustomed to every
luxury that wealth could buy. Clothed in the richest embroidered
silks and satins, decorated with the rarest pearls and precious
stones, she had serving women and slave girls to wait upon her,
and humour her every whim. One day when we were talking of the
Boxer insurrection she told me the following story:
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: intoxication, and kept roaring and shouting 'Where is Agathon? Lead me to
Agathon,' and at length, supported by the flute-girl and some of his
attendants, he found his way to them. 'Hail, friends,' he said, appearing
at the door crowned with a massive garland of ivy and violets, his head
flowing with ribands. 'Will you have a very drunken man as a companion of
your revels? Or shall I crown Agathon, which was my intention in coming,
and go away? For I was unable to come yesterday, and therefore I am here
to-day, carrying on my head these ribands, that taking them from my own
head, I may crown the head of this fairest and wisest of men, as I may be
allowed to call him. Will you laugh at me because I am drunk? Yet I know
very well that I am speaking the truth, although you may laugh. But first
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