| 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: [3] Or, "order and arrangement." So Cic. ap. Col. xii. 2, 4,
"dispositione atque ordine."
"For instance, what is a chorus?--a band composed of human beings, who
dance and sing; but suppose the company proceed to act as each may
chance--confusion follows; the spectacle has lost its charm. How
different when each and all together act and recite[4] with orderly
precision, the limbs and voices keeping time and tune. Then, indeed,
these same performers are worth seeing and worth hearing.
[4] Or, "declaim," {phtheggontai}, properly of the "recitative" of the
chorus. Cf. Plat. "Phaedr." 238 D.
"So, too, an army," I said, "my wife, an army destitute of order is
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: one brave officer, left the cabin he occupied near the bridge, and
studied the spectacle of that improvised camp placed between the bank
of the river and Studzianka. The Russian cannon had ceased to thunder.
Innumerable fires, which, amid that trackless waste of snow, burned
pale and scarcely sent out any gleams, illumined here and there by
sudden flashes forms and faces that were barely human. Thirty thousand
poor wretches, belonging to all nations, from whom Napoleon had
recruited his Russian army, were trifling away their lives with
brutish indifference.
"Let us save them!" said General Eble to the officer who accompanied
him. "To-morrow morning the Russians will be masters of Studzianka. We
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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 Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: pseudologia phantastica. A young woman, well endowed physically
and mentally, for years has often been indulging in extensive
fabrications which have no discernible basis in advantages
accruing to herself. The peculiarities of the falsifications
have given rise to much trouble for her, her family, and for many
others who have been incidentally connected with the situation.
The genesis of the tendency was finally found in early
experiences about which there have been much mental repression
and conflict. In the background there was also defective home
control and chronic neuropathic tendencies in both parents and in
their kin.
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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 Laches by Plato: perils by sea, and who in disease, or in poverty, or again in politics, are
courageous; and not only who are courageous against pain or fear, but
mighty to contend against desires and pleasures, either fixed in their rank
or turning upon their enemy. There is this sort of courage--is there not,
Laches?
LACHES: Certainly, Socrates.
SOCRATES: And all these are courageous, but some have courage in
pleasures, and some in pains: some in desires, and some in fears, and some
are cowards under the same conditions, as I should imagine.
LACHES: Very true.
SOCRATES: Now I was asking about courage and cowardice in general. And I
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