| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: turned tail and quitted the deadly slope, leaving behind them more
than a couple of hundred corpses.
[22] See Plut. "Lys." xxviii. (Clough, iii. 137).
On this day, thereafter, the hearts of the Thebans failed them as they
counted their losses and found them equal to their gains; but the next
day they discovered that during the night the Phocians and the rest of
them had made off to their several homes, whereupon they fell to
pluming themselves highly on their achievement. But presently
Pausanias appeared at the head of the Lacedaemonian army, and once
more their dangers seemed to thicken round them. Deep, we are told,
was the silence and abasement which reigned in their host. It was not
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King James Bible: SA1 12:13 Now therefore behold the king whom ye have chosen, and whom
ye have desired! and, behold, the LORD hath set a king over you.
SA1 12:14 If ye will fear the LORD, and serve him, and obey his voice,
and not rebel against the commandment of the LORD, then shall both ye
and also the king that reigneth over you continue following the LORD
your God:
SA1 12:15 But if ye will not obey the voice of the LORD, but rebel
against the commandment of the LORD, then shall the hand of the LORD be
against you, as it was against your fathers.
SA1 12:16 Now therefore stand and see this great thing, which the LORD
will do before your eyes.
King James Bible |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Merry Men by Robert Louis Stevenson: continuity of man's experience, some wilful illegality of nature.
He played a game of skill, depending on the rules, calculating
consequence from cause; and what if nature, as the defeated tyrant
overthrew the chess-board, should break the mould of their
succession? The like had befallen Napoleon (so writers said) when
the winter changed the time of its appearance. The like might
befall Markheim: the solid walls might become transparent and
reveal his doings like those of bees in a glass hive; the stout
planks might yield under his foot like quicksands and detain him in
their clutch; ay, and there were soberer accidents that might
destroy him: if, for instance, the house should fall and imprison
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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 Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: With earth and heaven a dark, blue flower,
In a humble mood I bless
Your wisdom -- and your waywardness.
You brought me even here, where I
Live on a hill against the sky
And look on mountains and the sea
And a thin white moon in the pepper tree.
VIII
"There Will Come Soft Rains"
(War Time)
There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
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