| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Barlaam and Ioasaph by St. John of Damascus: understand that the possession thereof is deadly, I will hazard
neither them nor myself in such snares."
But when Ioasaph had failed once again to persuade Barlaam, `twas
but a sign for a second petition, and he made yet another
request, that Barlaam should not altogether overlook his prayer,
nor plunge him in utter despair, but should leave him that stiff
shirt and rough mantle, both to remind him of his teacher's
austerities and to safe-guard him from all the workings of Satan,
and should take from him another cloak instead, in order that
"When thou seest my gift," said he, "thou mayest bear my
lowliness in remembrance."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Paz by Honore de Balzac: on the other hand, has architecture discovered so many economical ways
of imitating the real and the solid, or displayed more resources, more
talent, in distributing them. Propose to an architect to build upon
the garden at the back of an old mansion, and he will run you up a
little Louvre overloaded with ornament. He will manage to get in a
courtyard, stables, and if you care for it, a garden. Inside the house
he will accommodate a quantity of little rooms and passages. He is so
clever in deceiving the eye that you think you will have plenty of
space; but it is only a nest of small rooms, after all, in which a
ducal family has to turn itself about in the space that its own
bakehouse formerly occupied.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: "If it can be done without loss of honour on our parts, so shall it
be." At that word the young man, in deep despondency, turned and went.
Now one of the friends of Sphodrias, conversing with Etymocles,
remarked to him: "You are all bent on putting Sphodrias to death, I
take it, you friends of Agesilaus?" And Etymocles replied: "If that be
so, we all are bent on one thing, and Agesilaus on another, since in
all his conversations he still harps upon one string: that Sphodrias
has done a wrong there is no denying, yet Sphodrias is a man who, from
boyhood to ripe manhood,[13] was ever constant to the call of honour.
To put such a man as that to death is hard; nay, Sparta needs such
soldiers." The other accordingly went off and reported what he had
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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 Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley: believe to be the Idalia aspersa of Alder and Hancock.
At the bottom of the rock pools, behind St. Leonard's baths, may be
found hundreds of the snipe's feather Anemone (Sagartia
troglodytes), of every line; from the common brown and grey snipe's
feather kind, to the white-horned Hesperus, the orange-horned
Aurora, and a rich lilac and crimson variety, which does not seem
to agree with either the Lilacinia or Rubicunda of Gosse. A more
beautiful living bouquet could hardly be seen, than might be made
of the varieties of this single species, from this one place.
On the outside sands between the end of the Marina and the Martello
tower, you may find, at very low tides, great numbers of a sand-
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