| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: [25] Or, "retirements," see "Horsemanship," viii. 12; "Cyrop." V. iv.
8; "Hell." IV. ii. 6; "Ages." ii. 3.
[26] Or, "having precluded in this fashion. See Theocr. xxii. 102:
{ton men anax ataraxen etosia khersi prodeiknus Pantothen},
"feinting on every side" (A. Lang). Al. "having given due warning
of his intention." Cf. Aristot. "H. A." ix. 37.
[27] Cf. Aristoph. "Knights," 244 (Demosthenes calls to the
hipparchs[?]):
{andres eggus . all' amunou, kapanastrephou palin}.
IX
To read these observations over a few times will be sufficient, but
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: railways. The landing-master's crew were occupied in
assisting the millwrights in laying the railways to hand.
Sailors, of all other descriptions of men, are the most
accommodating in the use of their hands. They worked freely
with the boring-irons, and assisted in all the operations of
the railways, acting by turns as boatmen, seamen, and
artificers. We had no such character on the Bell Rock as the
common labourer. All the operations of this department were
cheerfully undertaken by the seamen, who, both on the rock and
on shipboard, were the inseparable companions of every work
connected with the erection of the Bell Rock Lighthouse. It
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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 Theaetetus by Plato: trouble. The lords of philosophy have not learned the way to the dicastery
or ecclesia; they neither see nor hear the laws and votes of the state,
written or recited; societies, whether political or festive, clubs, and
singing maidens do not enter even into their dreams. And the scandals of
persons or their ancestors, male and female, they know no more than they
can tell the number of pints in the ocean. Neither are they conscious of
their own ignorance; for they do not practise singularity in order to gain
reputation, but the truth is, that the outer form of them only is residing
in the city; the inner man, as Pindar says, is going on a voyage of
discovery, measuring as with line and rule the things which are under and
in the earth, interrogating the whole of nature, only not condescending to
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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 Fantastic Fables by Ambrose Bierce: would soil your shoes and stockings."
"Oh, that is of no importance, really," replied the Rich Woman,
with a cheerful smile.
"But, madam, it is needless; from the wharf to the hotel, as you
observe, extends an unbroken line of prostrate newspaper men who
crave the honour of having you walk upon them."
"In that case," she said, seating herself in a doorway and
unlocking her satchel, "I shall have to put on my rubber boots."
Two in Trouble
MEETING a fat and patriotic Statesman on his way to Washington to
beseech the President for an office, an idle Tramp accosted him and
Fantastic Fables |
