| 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: the imperial city of Peking where her name, age, personal
appearance, and estimated degree of intelligence and potential
ability were registered, as is done in the case of all the
daughters of the Manchu people. The reason for this singular
proceeding is that when the time comes for the selection of a
wife or a concubine for the Emperor, or the choosing of serving
girls for the palace, those in charge of these matters will know
where they can be obtained.
This custom is not considered an unalloyed blessing by the Manchu
people, and many of them would gladly avoid registering their
daughters if only they dared. But the rule is compulsory, and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: and wished to come to an understanding with the examining judge as to
how to wind up this business of Lucien's death. The end could no
longer be that on which he had decided the day before in agreement
with Camusot, before the suicide of the hapless poet.
"Sit down, Monsieur Camusot," said Monsieur de Granville, dropping
into his armchair. The public prosecutor, alone with the inferior
judge, made no secret of his depressed state. Camusot looked at
Monsieur de Granville and observed his almost livid pallor, and such
utter fatigue, such complete prostration, as betrayed greater
suffering perhaps than that of the condemned man to whom the clerk had
announced the rejection of his appeal. And yet that announcement, in
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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 Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: use. . . ."
The writing changed at this point.
"All this seems to me at once as old as the hills and too new to be
true. This is like the conflict of the Superior Man of Confucius to
control himself, it is like the Christian battle of the spirit with
the flesh, it savours of that eternal wrangle between the general
and the particular which is metaphysics, it was for this
aristocratic self, for righteousness' sake, that men have hungered
and thirsted, and on this point men have left father and mother and
child and wife and followed after salvation. This world-wide, ever-
returning antagonism has filled the world in every age with hermits
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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 Dead Souls by Nikolai Vasilievich Gogol: the rest of the staff put together, and has had a university
education. Also, the better to lose no time, may I humbly beg you to
step into my library, where you will find notebooks, paper, pens, and
everything else that you may require. Of these articles pray make full
use, for you are a gentleman of letters, and it is your and my joint
duty to bring enlightenment to all."
So saying, he ushered his guest into a large room lined from floor to
ceiling with books and stuffed specimens. The books in question were
divided into sections--a section on forestry, a section on
cattle-breeding, a section on the raising of swine, and a section on
horticulture, together with special journals of the type circulated
Dead Souls |
