| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: and persuasion is to be acquired.
SOCRATES: The perfection which is required of the finished orator is, or
rather must be, like the perfection of anything else; partly given by
nature, but may also be assisted by art. If you have the natural power and
add to it knowledge and practice, you will be a distinguished speaker; if
you fall short in either of these, you will be to that extent defective.
But the art, as far as there is an art, of rhetoric does not lie in the
direction of Lysias or Thrasymachus.
PHAEDRUS: In what direction then?
SOCRATES: I conceive Pericles to have been the most accomplished of
rhetoricians.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: both sides; so that Alan and I could at last wash out the
round-house and be quit of the memorials of those whom we had
slain, and the captain and Mr. Riach could be happy again in
their own way, the name of which was drink.
CHAPTER XII
I HEAR OF THE "RED FOX"
Before we had done cleaning out the round-house, a breeze sprang
up from a little to the east of north. This blew off the rain
and brought out the sun.
And here I must explain; and the reader would do well to look at
a map. On the day when the fog fell and we ran down Alan's boat,
Kidnapped |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: me. He promised that she should soon see me at her feet, as
affectionate and as faithful as ever. `When?' she asked. `This
very day,' said he; `the happy moment shall not be long delayed;
nay, this very instant even, if you wish it.' She at once
understood that I was at the door; as she was rushing towards it,
I entered. We embraced each other with that abounding and
impassioned tenderness, which an absence of many months makes so
delicious to those who truly love. Our sighs, our broken
exclamations, the thousand endearing appellations of love,
exchanged in languishing rapture, astonished M. de T----, and
affected him even to tears.
|
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 Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: miles.
"It is main ungentle armscraft that he learneth," said Lord
Falworth one day to Prior Edward. "Saving only the broadsword,
the dagger, and the lance, there is but little that a gentleman
of his strain may use. Neth'less, he gaineth quickness and
suppleness, and if he hath true blood in his veins he will
acquire knightly arts shrewdly quick when the time cometh to
learn them."
But hard and grinding as Myles's life was, it was not entirely
without pleasures. There were many boys living in Crosbey-Dale
and the village; yeomen's and farmers' sons, to be sure, but,
Men of Iron |
