| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: the Laconian heavy infantry is highly complicated, no conception could
be more opposed to fact. For in the Laconian order the front rank men
are all leaders,[11] so that each file has everything necessary to
play its part efficiently. In fact, this disposition is so easy to
understand that no one who can distinguish one human being from
another could fail to follow it. One set have the privilege of
leaders, the other the duty of followers. The evolutional orders,[12]
by which greater depth or shallowness is given to the battle line, are
given by word of mouth by the enomotarch (or commander of the
section), who plays the part of the herald, and they cannot be
mistaken. None of these manouvres presents any difficulty whatsoever
|
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 Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson: see you home.'
'Look here,' returned Dick, 'I have said good night, and now
I'm going. You're an amusing old boy: I like you, in a
sense; but here's an end of it for to-night. Not another
cigar, not another grog, not another percentage out of me.'
'I beg your pardon!' cried the Admiral with dignity.
'Tut, man!' said Dick; 'you're not offended; you're a man of
the world, I thought. I've been studying you, and it's over.
Have I not paid for the lesson? AU REVOIR.'
Van Tromp laughed gaily, shook hands up to the elbows, hoped
cordially they would meet again and that often, but looked
|
