| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from 1492 by Mary Johntson: was now a light wind; it brought them nearer, they being
better sailers than the _Santa Cruz_ and the _Santa Clara_. We
saw the banner. ``Castile!'' and a lesser one. ``El Almirante!''
Now we were close together. The masters hailed, What
ships?''--``From Hispaniola!''--``From Cadiz. The
Admiral with us! Come aboard, your commander!''
That was Luis Mendez, and in the boat with him went
Juan Lepe. The ships were the _Esperanza_, the _San Sebastian_
and the _San Martin_, the first fairly large and well decked,
the others small. They who looked overside and shouted
welcome seemed a medley of gentle and simple, mariners,
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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 Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: of London, as they drove. 'My dear fellow,' he said, 'you don't
seem to know anything of your native city. Suppose we visited the
Tower? No? Well, perhaps it's a trifle out of our way. But,
anyway--Here, cabby, drive round by Trafalgar Square!' And on
that historic battlefield he insisted on drawing up, while he
criticized the statues and gave the artist many curious details
(quite new to history) of the lives of the celebrated men they
represented.
It would be difficult to express what Pitman suffered in the cab:
cold, wet, terror in the capital degree, a grounded distrust of
the commander under whom he served, a sense of imprudency in the
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: out what a friend is.
Thus, as in the Charmides and Laches, and several of the other Dialogues of
Plato (compare especially the Protagoras and Theaetetus), no conclusion is
arrived at. Socrates maintains his character of a 'know nothing;' but the
boys have already learned the lesson which he is unable to teach them, and
they are free from the conceit of knowledge. (Compare Chrm.) The dialogue
is what would be called in the language of Thrasyllus tentative or
inquisitive. The subject is continued in the Phaedrus and Symposium, and
treated, with a manifest reference to the Lysis, in the eighth and ninth
books of the Nicomachean Ethics of Aristotle. As in other writings of
Plato (for example, the Republic), there is a progress from unconscious
Lysis |
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 On Revenues by Xenophon: The natural advantages of Boeotia are similarly set forth by
Ephorus. Cf. Strab. ix. 2, p. 400.
Once more, this land though not literally sea-girt has all the
advantages of an island, being accessible to every wind that blows,
and can invite to its bosom or waft from its shore all products, since
it is peninsular; whilst by land it is the emporium of many markets,
as being a portion of the continent.
Lastly, while the majority of states have barbarian neighbours, the
source of many troubles, Athens has as her next-door neighbours
civilised states which are themselves far remote from the barbarians.
II
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