| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: know by what means you could bestow so many benefits upon them as by
means of mercenaries.
[1] Lit. "spear-bearers"; the title given to the body-guard of kings
and tyrants.
[2] Lit. "the beautiful and good," the {kalois kagathois}. See "Econ."
vi. 11 foll.
Let me explain: You keep them, I presume, in the first instance, for
yourself, as guards of your own person. But for masters, owners of
estates and others, to be done to death with violence by their own
slaves is no unheard-of thing. Supposing, then, the first and foremost
duty laid on mercenary troops were this: they are the body-guards of
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: No doubt (he answered).
Soc. It is, is it not, by faithfully copying the various muscular
contractions of the body in obedience to the play of gesture and
poise, the wrinklings of flesh and the sprawl of limbs, the tensions
and the relaxations, that you succeed in making your statues like real
beings--make them "breathe" as people say?
Cleit. Without a doubt.
Soc. And does not the faithful imitation of the various affections of
the body when engaged in any action impart a particular pleasure to
the beholder?
Cleit. I should say so.
The Memorabilia |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: long in your debt, Master, and I did not think it could be so much
increased as you have now increased it. I was long in your debt
and deep in your debt for many poems that I shall never forget, and
for SIGURD before all, and now you have plunged me beyond payment
by the Saga Library. And so now, true to human nature, being
plunged beyond payment, I come and bark at your heels.
For surely, Master, that tongue that we write, and that you have
illustrated so nobly, is yet alive. She has her rights and laws,
and is our mother, our queen, and our instrument. Now in that
living tongue WHERE has one sense, WHEREAS another. In the
HEATHSLAYINGS STORY, p. 241, line 13, it bears one of its ordinary
|
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 Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: was so much gained; but like a loyal brother, he always called her
absent husband to the lady's mind.
Now one evening--the day had been very warm--Lavalliere suspecting the
lady's games, told her that Maille loved her dearly, that she had in
him a man of honour, a gentleman who doted on her, and was ticklish on
the score of his crown.
"Why then, if he is so ticklish in this manner, has he placed you
here?"
"Was it not a most prudent thing?" replied he. "Was it not necessary
to confide you to some defender of your virtue? Not that it needs one
save to protect you from wicked men."
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
