| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: is represented on a patera from Orvieto, now in the Berlin Museum,
reproduced and fully described in "The Art of Horsemanship by
Xenophon," translated, with chapters on the Greek Riding-Horse,
and with notes, by Morris H. Morgan, p. 76.
On occasions when the display takes place in the hippodrome,[16] the
best arrangement would be, in the first place, that the troops should
fill the entire space with extended front, so forcing out the mob of
people from the centre;[17] and secondly, that in the sham fight[18]
which ensues, the tribal squadrons, swiftly pursuing and retiring,
should gallop right across and through each other, the two hipparchs
at their head, each with five squadrons under him. Consider the effect
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: the career of my brother, who had lately been sent to the Congress of
Vienna, and was anxious at any risk to justify Henriette's appeal and
become a man myself, freed from all vassalage, nevertheless my
ambition, my desire for independence, the great interest I had in not
leaving the king, all were of no account before the vision of Madame
de Mortsauf's sad face. I resolved to leave the court at Ghent and
serve my true sovereign. God rewarded me. The emissary sent by the
Vendeens was unable to return. The king wanted a messenger who would
faithfully carry back his instructions. The Duc de Lenoncourt knew
that the king would never forget the man who undertook so perilous an
enterprise; he asked for the mission without consulting me, and I
The Lily of the Valley |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Shakespeare's Sonnets by William Shakespeare: Now is the time that face should form another;
Whose fresh repair if now thou not renewest,
Thou dost beguile the world, unbless some mother.
For where is she so fair whose unear'd womb
Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?
Or who is he so fond will be the tomb,
Of his self-love to stop posterity?
Thou art thy mother's glass and she in thee
Calls back the lovely April of her prime;
So thou through windows of thine age shalt see,
Despite of wrinkles this thy golden time.
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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 Moral Emblems by Robert Louis Stevenson: Despised the other for a tailor.
'See,' he remarked, 'with envy, see
A man with such a fist as me!
Bearded and ringed, and big, and brown,
I sit and toss the stingo down.
Hear the gold jingle in my bag -
All won beneath the Jolly Flag!'
Ben moralised and shook his head:
'You wanderers earn and eat your bread.
The foe is found, beats or is beaten,
And, either how, the wage is eaten.
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