The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: part of the subject, I hope he will come back to me and say:--
"What I desire is to be free from passion and from perturbation;
as one who grudges no pains in the pursuit of piety and
philosophy, what I desire is to know my duty to the Gods, my duty
to my parents, to my brothers, to my country, to strangers."
"Enter then on the second part of the subject; it is thine
also."
"But I have already mastered the second part; only I wished
to stand firm and unshaken--as firm when asleep as when awake,
as firm when elated with wine as in despondency and dejection."
"Friend, you are verily a God! you cherish great designs."
 The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: after them; but without doubt it is a surprising account,
especially in a cheap year.
The next article brought thither is wool, and this of several
sorts, but principally fleece wool, out of Lincolnshire, where the
longest staple is found; the sheep of those countries being of the
largest breed.
The buyers of this wool are chiefly indeed the manufacturers of
Norfolk and Suffolk and Essex, and it is a prodigious quantity they
buy.
Here I saw what I have not observed in any other county of England,
namely, a pocket of wool. This seems to be first called so in
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