| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: engaged; to drink as many bottles as --; to be thought as good a
judge of a horse as --; to have the knowing cut of --'s jacket.
These were thy gods, O Israel!
Now I was a mere looker-on; seldom an unmoved, and sometimes an
angry spectator, but still a spectator only, of the pursuits of
mankind. I felt how little my opinion was valued by those
engaged in the busy turmoil, yet I exercised it with the
profusion of an old lawyer retired from his profession, who
thrusts himself into his neighbour's affairs, and gives advice
where it is not wanted, merely under pretence of loving the crack
of the whip.
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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 Sportsman by Xenophon: unawares, and fall into the toils. If it held on its course
uphill,[47] it would seldom meet with such a fate; but now, through
its propensity to circle round and its attachment to the place where
it was born and bred, it courts destruction. Owing to its speed it is
not often overtaken by the hounds by fair hunting.[48] When caught, it
is the victim of a misfortune alien to its physical nature.
[46] {meta touton}, sc. "with these other causes"; al. "with the
dogs"; i.e. "like a second nightmare pack."
[47] Reading {orthion}, or if {orthon}, transl. "straight on."
[48] {kata podas}, i.e. "by running down"; cf. "Mem." II. vi. 9;
"Cyrop." I. vi. 40, re two kinds of hound: the one for scent, the
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