| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Economist by Xenophon: to be the best.
Soc. Well, granted the man is well disposed to you does it therefore
follow, Ischomachus, that he is fit to be your bailiff? It cannot have
escaped your observation that albeit human beings, as a rule, are
kindly disposed towards themselves, yet a large number of them will
not apply the attention requisite to secure for themselves those good
things which they fain would have.
Isch. Yes, but believe me, Socrates, when I seek to appoint such men
as bailiffs, I teach them also carefulness and application.[7]
[7] {epimeleia} is a cardinal virtue with the Greeks, or at any rate
with Xenophon, but it has no single name in English.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: accomplishment with varying degrees of excellence. As to Mills, he
was perfectly insular. There could be no doubt about him. They
were both smiling faintly at me. The burly Mills attended to the
introduction: "Captain Blunt."
We shook hands. The name didn't tell me much. What surprised me
was that Mills should have remembered mine so well. I don't want
to boast of my modesty but it seemed to me that two or three days
was more than enough for a man like Mills to forget my very
existence. As to the Captain, I was struck on closer view by the
perfect correctness of his personality. Clothes, slight figure,
clear-cut, thin, sun-tanned face, pose, all this was so good that
The Arrow of Gold |
