| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Court Life in China by Isaac Taylor Headland: blood."
The country was of course in desperate straits and could ill
afford to lose, for three years, for a mere sentiment, the
services of one of her greatest and most powerful statesmen.
However much he may have regretted to give up such a brilliant
career which was just well begun, Yuan no doubt expected to do
so. What was his surprise therefore to receive from Her Majesty a
message of condolence in which she praised his mother in the
highest terms for having given the world such a brilliant and
able son. Under the circumstances, however, it would be
impossible to accept his resignation as his services to 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 Symposium by Plato: practices to be most disgraceful. But, as I was saying at first, the truth
as I imagine is, that whether such practices are honourable or whether they
are dishonourable is not a simple question; they are honourable to him who
follows them honourably, dishonourable to him who follows them
dishonourably. There is dishonour in yielding to the evil, or in an evil
manner; but there is honour in yielding to the good, or in an honourable
manner. Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul,
inasmuch as he is not even stable, because he loves a thing which is in
itself unstable, and therefore when the bloom of youth which he was
desiring is over, he takes wing and flies away, in spite of all his words
and promises; whereas the love of the noble disposition is life-long, for
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