| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Art of War by Sun Tzu: with him at the battle of Plataea, by means of which he fastened
himself firmly to one spot. [See Herodotus, IX. 74.] It is not
enough, says Sun Tzu, to render flight impossible by such
mechanical means. You will not succeed unless your men have
tenacity and unity of purpose, and, above all, a spirit of
sympathetic cooperation. This is the lesson which can be learned
from the SHUAI-JAN.]
32. The principle on which to manage an army is to set up
one standard of courage which all must reach.
[Literally, "level the courage [of all] as though [it were
that of] one." If the ideal army is to form a single organic
The Art of War |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: was done rationally in and by himself, and he moved in a circle turning
within himself, which is the most intellectual of motions; but the other
six motions were wanting to him; wherefore the universe had no feet or
legs.
And so the thought of God made a God in the image of a perfect body, having
intercourse with himself and needing no other, but in every part harmonious
and self-contained and truly blessed. The soul was first made by him--the
elder to rule the younger; not in the order in which our wayward fancy has
led us to describe them, but the soul first and afterwards the body. God
took of the unchangeable and indivisible and also of the divisible and
corporeal, and out of the two he made a third nature, essence, which was in
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