| 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: walls. Things having reached this pass, Theramenes made a proposal in
the public assembly as follows: If they chose to send him as an
ambassador to Lysander, he would go and find out why the
Lacedaemonians were so unyielding about the walls; whether it was they
really intended to enslave the city, or merely that they wanted a
guarantee of good faith. Despatched accordingly, he lingered on with
Lysander for three whole months and more, watching for the time when
the Athenians, at the last pinch of starvation, would be willing to
accede to any terms that might be offered. At last, in the fourth
month, he returned and reported to the public assembly that Lysander
had detained him all this while, and had ended by bidding him betake
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln: that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated. . .
can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war.
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives that this nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate. . .we cannot consecrate. . .
we cannot hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead,
who struggled here have consecrated it, far above our poor power
to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember,
what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished
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