| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Dawn O'Hara, The Girl Who Laughed by Edna Ferber: editors' hands. I want to be there in the thick of the
confusion that is, after all, so orderly. I want to be
there when the telephone bells are zinging, and the
typewriters are snapping, and the messenger boys are
shuffling in and out, and the office kids are scuffling
in a corner, and the big city editor, collar off, sleeves
rolled up from his great arms, hair bristling wildly
above his green eye-shade, is swearing gently and smoking
cigarette after cigarette, lighting each fresh one at the
dying glow of the last. I would give a year of my life
to hear him say:
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: the one, because they contain the one, which will be less than the others,
because it is contained in them; and inasmuch as the others are in the one,
the one on the same principle will be greater than the others, and the
others less than the one.
True.
The one, then, will be equal to and greater and less than itself and the
others?
Clearly.
And if it be greater and less and equal, it will be of equal and more and
less measures or divisions than itself and the others, and if of measures,
also of parts?
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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 Under the Andes by Rex Stout: at once a goddess and an outcast.
The newspapers of the following morning were full of it,
running the scale of eulogy, admiration, and wonder. And one of
the articles, evidently written by a man who had been considerably
farther east than San Francisco, ended with the following
paragraph:
In short, it was sublime, and with every movement and every
gesture there was a something hidden, a suggestion of a personality
and mysterious charm that we have always heretofore considered the
exclusive property of just one woman in the world. But Desiree Le
Mire is not in San Francisco; though we declare that the
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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 Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: him very clean, then chine or slit him through the middle, as a salt-fish
is usually cut; then give him three or four cuts or scotches on the back
with your knife, and broil him on charcoal, or wood coal, that are free
from smoke; and all the time he is a-broiling, baste him with the best
sweet butter, and good store of salt mixed with it. And, to this, add a
little thyme cut exceedingly small, or bruised into the butter. The
Cheven thus dressed hath the watery taste taken away, for which so
many except against him. Thus was the Cheven dressed that you now
liked so well, and commended so much But note again, that if this
Chub that you eat of had been kept till to-morrow, he had not been
worth a rush. And remember, that his throat be washed very clean, I say
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