| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ballads by Robert Louis Stevenson: To him came Tamatea, the basket slung in his hand,
And paid him the due obeisance standing as vassals stand.
In silence hearkened the king, and closed the eyes in his face,
Harbouring odious thoughts and the baseless fears of the base;
In silence accepted the gift and sent the giver away.
So Tamatea departed, turning his back on the day.
And lo! as the king sat brooding, a rumour rose in the crowd;
The yottowas nudged and whispered, the commons murmured aloud;
Tittering fell upon all at sight of the impudent thing,
At the sight of a gift unroyal flung in the face of a king.
And the face of the king turned white and red with anger and shame
 Ballads |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: which the law regards as criminal. And as a matter of act Agesilaus
judged it not only wrong to forgo repayment of a deed of kindness,
but, where the means were ample, wrong also not to repay such debts
with ample interest.
[1] See Muller and Donaldson, "Hist. Gk. Lit." ii. 196, note 2.
[2] Or, "a state of indebtedness beyond the reach of a tribunal." See
"Cyrop." I. ii. 7.
The charge of embezzlement, could it be alleged, would no less outrage
all reason in the case of one who made over to his country the benefit
in full of grateful offerings owed solely to himself. Indeed the very
fact that, when he wished to help the city or his friends with money,
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