| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: millions of Jews who are totally and markedly deficient in it, and to base
any practical legislation for the individual even on this proven
intellectual aptitude of the race as a whole would be manifestly as
ridiculous as abortive. Yet more markedly, with the German--no
consideration of his physical peculiarities, though it proceeded to the
subtlest analysis of nerve, bone, and muscle, could in the present stage of
our knowledge have proved to us what generations of experience appear to
have proved, that, with that organisation which constitutes the German,
goes an unique aptitude for music. There is always the possibility of
mistaking the result of training and external circumstance for inherent
tendency, but when we consider the passion for music which the German has
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: Her friends took her good fortune less calmly. Their genuine
satisfaction expressed itself in a variety of ways. Crane sent
her this characteristic telegram:--
"Bully for you!"
Babcock came all the way down to her home to offer her his
congratulations, and to tender her what assistance she needed in
tools or money.
The Union, in their deliberations, insisted that it was the
"raised bid" which had ruined the business with McGaw and for
them. It was therefore McGaw's duty to spare no effort to prevent
her signing the contract. They had stuck by him in times gone by;
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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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: line; the steering oar cut the black current sharply, and the boat
swept out into the night.
WHICH MAKE MEN REMEMBER
Fortune La Pearle crushed his way through the snow, sobbing,
straining, cursing his luck, Alaska, Nome, the cards, and the man
who had felt his knife. The hot blood was freezing on his hands,
and the scene yet bright in his eyes,--the man, clutching the
table and sinking slowly to the floor; the rolling counters and
the scattered deck; the swift shiver throughout the room, and the
pause; the game-keepers no longer calling, and the clatter of the
chips dying away; the startled faces; the infinite instant of
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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 Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: another order of beings. In their countries it is difficult to
wish for anything that may not be obtained; a thousand arts, of
which we never heard, are continually labouring for their
convenience and pleasure, and whatever their own climate has denied
them is supplied by their commerce."
"By what means," said the Prince, "are the Europeans thus powerful?
or why, since they can so easily visit Asia and Africa for trade or
conquest, cannot the Asiatics and Africans invade their coast,
plant colonies in their ports, and give laws to their natural
princes? The same wind that carries them back would bring us
thither."
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