| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Purse by Honore de Balzac: again for it, quite lately, I was sternly informed that if the
Baron de Rouville had emigrated I should not have lost him; that
by this time he would have been a rear-admiral; finally, his
Excellency quoted I know not what degree of forfeiture. I took
this step, to which I was urged by my friends, only for the sake
of my poor Adelaide. I have always hated the idea of holding out
my hand as a beggar in the name of a grief which deprives a woman
of voice and strength. I do not like this money valuation for
blood irreparably spilt----"
"Dear mother, this subject always does you harm."
In response to this remark from Adelaide, the Baronne Leseigneur
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: reference to the Messenians and Naupactus; Grote, "H. G." x. 212.
B.C. 372. Having attached to his squadron the navy also of Corcyra,
with a fleet numbering now about ninety ships he set sail, in the
first instance to Cephallenia, where he exacted money--which was in
some cases voluntarily paid, in others forcibly extorted. In the next
place he began making preparations partly to harass the territory of
the Lacedaemonians, and partly to win over voluntarily the other
states in that quarter which were hostile to Athens; or in case of
refusal to go to war with them.
The whole conduct of the campaign reflects, I think, the highest
credit on Iphicrates. If his strategy was admirable, so too was the
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