| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: Thus it is impossible that he should take his ease in this life,
and not work for the good of his neighbours, since he must needs
speak, act, and converse among men, just as Christ was made in
the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man, and had His
conversation among men.
Yet a Christian has need of none of these things for
justification and salvation, but in all his works he ought to
entertain this view and look only to this object--that he may
serve and be useful to others in all that he does; having nothing
before his eyes but the necessities and the advantage of his
neighbour. Thus the Apostle commands us to work with our own
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: and paid him down in gold. Yet, pretending to be concerned for
her loss, and that she would gladly have her revenge for it, she
pressed him to begin a new game for a eunuch; to which he
consented. But first they agreed that each of them might except
five of their most trusty eunuchs, and that out of the rest of
them the loser should yield up any the winner should make choice
of. Upon these conditions they played. Thus being bent upon
her design, and thoroughly in earnest with her game, and the
dice also running luckily for her, when she had got the game,
she demanded Masabates, who was not in the number of the five
excepted. And before the king could suspect the matter, having
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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 Lysis by Plato: return. Or shall we say that they do love them, although they are not
beloved by them; and that the poet was wrong who sings--
'Happy the man to whom his children are dear, and steeds having single
hoofs, and dogs of chase, and the stranger of another land'?
I do not think that he was wrong.
You think that he is right?
Yes.
Then, Menexenus, the conclusion is, that what is beloved, whether loving or
hating, may be dear to the lover of it: for example, very young children,
too young to love, or even hating their father or mother when they are
punished by them, are never dearer to them than at the time when they are
Lysis |
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 On Horsemanship by Xenophon: puffed out with veins or flesh; or else in riding over hard ground
they will inevitably be surcharged with blood, and varicose conditions
be set up,[13] the legs becoming thick and puffy, whilst the skin
recedes; and with this loosening of the skin the back sinew[14] is
very apt to start and render the horse lame.
[12] i.e. "the metacarpals and metatarsals."
[13] Or, "and become varicose, with the result that the shanks swell
whilst the skin recedes from the bone."
[14] Or, "suspensory ligament"? Possibly Xenophon's anatomy is wrong,
and he mistook the back sinew for a bone like the fibula. The part
in question might intelligibly enough, if not technically, be
On Horsemanship |
