| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: by avoiding harshness of speech and act, so you will best avoid
enraging a spirited horse by not annoying him. Thus, from the first
instant, in the act of mounting him, you should take pains to minimise
the annoyance; and once on his back you should sit quiet for longer
than the ordinary time, and so urge him forward by the gentlest signs
possible; next, beginning at the slowest pace, gradually work him into
a quicker step, but so gradually that he will find himself at full
speed without noticing it.[1] Any sudden signal will bewilder a
spirited horse, just as a man is bewildered by any sudden sight or
sound or other experience. [I say one should be aware that any
unexpected shock will produce disturbance in a horse.][2]
 On Horsemanship |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays & Lectures by Oscar Wilde: but in their art, their poetry and their philosophy, seems so
essentially normal, so free from all disturbing external
influences, so peculiarly rational, that in following in the
footsteps of time we shall really be progressing in the order
sanctioned by reason.
CHAPTER II
AT an early period in their intellectual development the Greeks
reached that critical point in the history of every civilised
nation, when speculative invades the domain of revealed truth, when
the spiritual ideas of the people can no longer be satisfied by the
lower, material conceptions of their inspired writers, and when men
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