| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Flame and Shadow by Sara Teasdale: With the whole world gone blind,
Everything, even my longing, drowses,
Even the thoughts in my mind.
I put my head on my hands before me,
There is nothing left to be done or said,
There is nothing to hope for, I am tired,
And heavy as the dead.
Bells
At six o'clock of an autumn dusk
With the sky in the west a rusty red,
The bells of the mission down in the valley
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Westward Ho! by Charles Kingsley: wandered, and so they will wander still, the lords of the forest
and its beasts; terrible to all hostile Indians, but kindly, just,
and generous to all who will deal faithfully with them; and many a
smooth-chinned Carib and Ature, Solimo and Guahiba, recounts with
wonder and admiration the righteousness of the bearded heroes, who
proclaimed themselves the deadly foes of the faithless and
murderous Spaniard, and spoke to them of the great and good queen
beyond the seas, who would send her warriors to deliver and avenge
the oppressed Indian.
The men are sleeping among the trees, some on the ground, and some
in grass-hammocks slung between the stems. All is silent, save 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 Ion by Plato: finest poems ever written, simply an invention of the Muses, as he himself
says. For in this way the God would seem to indicate to us and not allow
us to doubt that these beautiful poems are not human, or the work of man,
but divine and the work of God; and that the poets are only the
interpreters of the Gods by whom they are severally possessed. Was not
this the lesson which the God intended to teach when by the mouth of the
worst of poets he sang the best of songs? Am I not right, Ion?
ION: Yes, indeed, Socrates, I feel that you are; for your words touch my
soul, and I am persuaded that good poets by a divine inspiration interpret
the things of the Gods to us.
SOCRATES: And you rhapsodists are the interpreters of the poets?
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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 Hellenica by Xenophon: tortoise which he erected over the tank; but once more the tortoise
was burnt to a cinder in a successful night attack on the part of the
men of Larisa. These ineffectual efforts induced the ephors to send a
despatch bidding Thibron give up Larisa and march upon Caria.
[9] See "Anab." VI. vi. 12.
[10] March B.C. 399. See the final sentence of the "Anabasis."
[11] See "Anab." VII. viii. 8-16.
[12] Seventy stades S.E. of Cyme in the Aeolid. See Strabo, xiii. 621.
For the origin of the name cf. "Cyrop." VII. i. 45.
He had already reached Ephesus, and was on the point of marching into
Caria, when Dercylidas arrived to take command of his army. The new
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