| 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: reference to the seizure of the Kadmeia, p. 170.
The imagination of Phoebidas was kindled as he listened to the
tempting proposal. To do a brilliant deed was far dearer to him than
life;[22] on the other hand, he had no reasoning capacity, and would
seem to have been deficient altogether in sound sense. The consent of
the Spartan secured, Leontiades bade him set his troops in motion, as
if everything were ready for his departure. "And anon, when the hour
is come," added the Theban, "I will be with you, and show you the way
myself."
[22] Or, "Renown was his mistress." See Grote, "H. G." x. 84.
The senate was seated in the arcade or stoa in the market-place, since
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: responsibilities that love lays on him while he tastes the
sweetness of its joys. He went along the Quais to see the widest
possible space of sky; his heart had grown in him; he would fain
have had the bounds of the firmament and of earth enlarged. It
seemed to him that his lungs drew an ampler breath.
In the course of his self-examination, as he walked, he vowed to
love this woman so devoutly, that every day of her life she
should find absolution for her sins against society in unfailing
happiness. Sweet stirrings of life when life is at the full!
The man that is strong enough to steep his soul in the colour of
one emotion, feels infinite joy as glimpses open out for him of
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