| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: again, exceptions are taken. For there must be a virtue of those who obey,
as well as of those who command; and the power of command must be justly or
not unjustly exercised. Meno is very ready to admit that justice is
virtue: 'Would you say virtue or a virtue, for there are other virtues,
such as courage, temperance, and the like; just as round is a figure, and
black and white are colours, and yet there are other figures and other
colours. Let Meno take the examples of figure and colour, and try to
define them.' Meno confesses his inability, and after a process of
interrogation, in which Socrates explains to him the nature of a 'simile in
multis,' Socrates himself defines figure as 'the accompaniment of colour.'
But some one may object that he does not know the meaning of the word
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair: their places at the end of it. At nine o'clock the bank opened and
began to pay the waiting throng; but then, what good did that do
Marija, who saw three thousand people before her--enough to take out
the last penny of a dozen banks?
To make matters worse a drizzling rain came up, and soaked them
to the skin; yet all the morning they stood there, creeping slowly
toward the goal--all the afternoon they stood there, heartsick,
seeing that the hour of closing was coming, and that they were going
to be left out. Marija made up her mind that, come what might,
she would stay there and keep her place; but as nearly all did
the same, all through the long, cold night, she got very little
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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 Pool in the Desert by Sara Jeanette Duncan: flower-borders. At last the drawing-room door and the smiling
housemaid turning the handle and the unforgettable picture of a
little girl, a little girl unlike anything we had imagined, starting
bravely to trot across the room with the little speech that had been
taught her. Half-way she came; I suppose our regards were too
fixed, too absorbed, for there she stopped with a wail of terror at
the strange faces, and ran straight back to the outstretched arms of
her Aunt Emma. The most natural thing in the world, no doubt. I
walked over to a chair opposite with my hand-bag and umbrella and
sat down--a spectator, aloof and silent. Aunt Emma fondled and
quieted the child, apologizing for her to me, coaxing her to look
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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 Vailima Letters by Robert Louis Stevenson: over-eaten after this 'hunger and burst' that I could
scarcely move; and it was my sad fate that night in the
character of the local author to eloquute before the public -
'Mr. Stevenson will read a selection from his own works' - a
degrading picture. I had determined to read them the account
of the hurricane; I do not know if I told you that my book
has never turned up here, or rather only one copy has, and
that in the unfriendly hands of -. It has therefore only
been seen by enemies; and this combination of mystery and
evil report has been greatly envenomed by some ill-judged
newspaper articles from the States. Altogether this specimen
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