| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Iliad by Homer: I will take no counsel with him, and will undertake nothing in
common with him. He has wronged me and deceived me enough, he
shall not cozen me further; let him go his own way, for Jove has
robbed him of his reason. I loathe his presents, and for himself
care not one straw. He may offer me ten or even twenty times what
he has now done, nay--not though it be all that he has in the
world, both now or ever shall have; he may promise me the wealth
of Orchomenus or of Egyptian Thebes, which is the richest city in
the whole world, for it has a hundred gates through each of which
two hundred men may drive at once with their chariots and horses;
he may offer me gifts as the sands of the sea or the dust of the
The Iliad |
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 Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: etc.
[17] Or, "the ideal state."
[18] Or, "and to govern and hold office."
[19] Or, "it will take the risk of that."
[20] See Grote, "H. G." v. p. 510 note.
Another point is the extraordinary amount of license[21] granted to
slaves and resident aliens at Athens, where a blow is illegal, and a
slave will not step aside to let you pass him in the street. I will
explain the reason of this peculiar custom. Supposing it were legal
for a slave to be beaten by a free citizen, or for a resident alien or
freedman to be beaten by a citizen, it would frequently happen that an
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