| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Island Nights' Entertainments by Robert Louis Stevenson: it lay where it fell three days."
"I must say it was well played, said I.
"O! he is clever," said Mr. Tarleton, "and you can now see for
yourself how dangerous. He was a party to the horrid death of the
paralytic; he is accused of poisoning Adams; he drove Vigours out
of the place by lies that might have led to murder; and there is no
question but he has now made up his mind to rid himself of you.
How he means to try we have no guess; only be sure, it's something
new. There is no end to his readiness and invention."
"He gives himself a sight of trouble," says I. "And after all,
what for?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: These then are the honours bestowed upon the king during his lifetime
[at home][7]--honours by no means much exceeding those of private
citizens, since the lawgiver was minded neither to suggest to the
kings the pride of the despotic monarch,[8] nor, on the other hand, to
engender in the heart of the citizen envy of their power. As to those
other honours which are given to the king at his death,[9] the laws of
Lycurgus would seem plainly to signify hereby that these kings of
Lacedaemon are not mere mortals but heroic beings, and that is why
they are preferred in honour.[10]
[7] The words "at home" look like an insertion.
[8] Lit. "the tyrant's pride."
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