The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: Drawing himself to his knees he leaned over the edge of the
canoe and commenced to paddle vigorously with his open palm.
Though it tired and hurt him he kept assiduously at his self
imposed labor for hours. Little by little the drifting canoe moved
nearer and nearer the shore. The Hon. Morison could hear a
lion roaring directly opposite him and so close that he felt he
must be almost to the shore. He drew his rifle closer to his side;
but he did not cease to paddle.
After what seemed to the tired man an eternity of time he felt
the brush of branches against the canoe and heard the swirl of
the water about them. A moment later he reached out and
The Son of Tarzan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: of costliest possessions unfolded to the general gaze, which rivets
the attention;[3] but the real troubles in the souls of monarchs it
keeps concealed in those hid chambers where lie stowed away the
happiness and the unhappiness of mankind.
[3] There is some redundancy in the phraseology.
I repeat then, I little marvel that the multitude should be blinded in
this matter. But that you others also, you who are held to see with
the mind's eye more clearly than with the eye of sense the mass of
circumstances,[4] should share its ignorance, does indeed excite my
wonderment. Now, I know it all too plainly from my own experience,
Simonides, and I assure you, the tyrant is one who has the smallest
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