| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: [30] {ton upobasin}, tech. of the crouching posture assumed by the
horse for mounting or "in doing the demi-passade" (so Morgan, op.
cit. p. 126).
The human subject would seem to point to this conclusion. When a man
wants to lift anything from off the ground he essays to do so by
bringing the legs apart and not by bringing them together.
A horse ought not to have large testicles, though that is not a point
to be determined in the colt.
And now, as regards the lower parts, the hocks,[31] or shanks and
fetlocks and hoofs, we have only to repeat what has been said already
about those of the fore-legs.
On Horsemanship |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Grimm's Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm: her, and she could not stay there all day waiting for them.
At last she overtook Frederick, who desired her to give him something
to eat. Then she gave him the dry bread. 'Where are the butter and
cheese?' said he. 'Oh!' answered she, 'I used the butter to grease
those poor trees that the wheels chafed so: and one of the cheeses ran
away so I sent the other after it to find it, and I suppose they are
both on the road together somewhere.' 'What a goose you are to do such
silly things!' said the husband. 'How can you say so?' said she; 'I am
sure you never told me not.'
They ate the dry bread together; and Frederick said, 'Kate, I hope you
locked the door safe when you came away.' 'No,' answered she, 'you did
Grimm's Fairy Tales |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Aspern Papers by Henry James: to which she rejoined aptly enough that he had been at least
Miss Bordereau's. The strange thing had been for me to discover
in England that she was still alive: it was as if I had been told
Mrs. Siddons was, or Queen Caroline, or the famous Lady Hamilton,
for it seemed to me that she belonged to a generation as extinct.
"Why, she must be tremendously old--at least a hundred," I had said;
but on coming to consider dates I saw that it was not strictly
necessary that she should have exceeded by very much the common span.
Nonetheless she was very far advanced in life, and her relations with
Jeffrey Aspern had occurred in her early womanhood. "That is her excuse,"
said Mrs. Prest, half-sententiously and yet also somewhat as if she
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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 Symposium by Plato: miserable flute-girl, have a power which no others have; they alone possess
the soul and reveal the wants of those who have need of gods and mysteries,
because they are divine. But you produce the same effect with your words
only, and do not require the flute: that is the difference between you and
him. When we hear any other speaker, even a very good one, he produces
absolutely no effect upon us, or not much, whereas the mere fragments of
you and your words, even at second-hand, and however imperfectly repeated,
amaze and possess the souls of every man, woman, and child who comes within
hearing of them. And if I were not afraid that you would think me
hopelessly drunk, I would have sworn as well as spoken to the influence
which they have always had and still have over me. For my heart leaps
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