| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: Still, this is not all; we have not yet recovered the title of
Marquis; and to get it, he must marry a girl of good family, in whose
favor the King will grant this distinction. Such an alliance will get
Lucien on in the world and at Court. This boy, of whom I have made a
man, will be first Secretary to an Embassy; later, he shall be
Minister at some German Court, and God, or I--better still--helping
him, he will take his seat some day on the bench reserved for
peers----"
"Or on the bench reserved for----" Lucien began, interrupting the man.
"Hold your tongue!" cried Carlos, laying his broad hand on Lucien's
mouth. "Would you tell such a secret to a woman?" he muttered in his
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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 Eryxias by Platonic Imitator: which men commonly have. I suppose that wealth is a quantity of money
(compare Arist. Pol.); and this, I imagine, would also be Critias'
definition.
SOCRATES: Then now we have to consider, What is money? Or else later on
we shall be found to differ about the question. For instance, the
Carthaginians use money of this sort. Something which is about the size of
a stater is tied up in a small piece of leather: what it is, no one knows
but the makers. A seal is next set upon the leather, which then passes
into circulation, and he who has the largest number of such pieces is
esteemed the richest and best off. And yet if any one among us had a mass
of such coins he would be no wealthier than if he had so many pebbles from
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