| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Anabasis by Xenophon: leading role. This occurred between 401 B.C. and
March 399 B.C.
PREPARER'S NOTE
This was typed from Dakyns' series, "The Works of Xenophon," a
four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though
there is doubt about some of these) is:
Work Number of books
The Anabasis 7
The Hellenica 7
The Cyropaedia 8
The Memorabilia 4
Anabasis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Altar of the Dead by Henry James: grasp the conception of gilding it with his bounty. He should
snatch it from no other rites and associate it with nothing
profane; he would simply take it as it should be given up to him
and make it a masterpiece of splendour and a mountain of fire.
Tended sacredly all the year, with the sanctifying church round it,
it would always be ready for his offices. There would be
difficulties, but from the first they presented themselves only as
difficulties surmounted. Even for a person so little affiliated
the thing would be a matter of arrangement. He saw it all in
advance, and how bright in especial the place would become to him
in the intermissions of toil and the dusk of afternoons; how rich
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Tanglewood Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne: And, once in a while, the strangers seemed to taste something
that they did not like.
"Here is an odd kind of spice in this dish," said one. "I can't
say it quite suits my palate. Down it goes, however."
"Send a good draught of wine down your throat," said his
comrade on the next throne. "That is the stuff to make this
sort of cookery relish well. Though I must needs say, the wine
has a queer taste too. But the more I drink of it, the better I
like the flavor."
Whatever little fault they might find with the dishes, they sat
at dinner a prodigiously long while; and it would really have
Tanglewood Tales |
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 The Life of the Spider by J. Henri Fabre: the unfailing patience of the Epeira, but it soon wears out mine.
And it has happened to me sometimes to collaborate with the Spider.
I pick up the floating loop with a straw and lay it on a branch, at
a convenient height. The foot-bridge erected with my assistance is
considered satisfactory, just as though the wind had placed it. I
count this collaboration among the good actions standing to my
credit.
Feeling her thread fixed, the Epeira runs along it repeatedly, from
end to end, adding a fibre to it on each journey. Whether I help
or not, this forms the 'suspension-cable,' the main piece of the
frame-work. I call it a cable, in spite of its extreme thinness,
The Life of the Spider |
