| 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: only to bid any one of your domestics go buy this, or that, and bring
it you from market, and not one of them will hesitate. The whole world
knows both where to go and where to find each thing.
[39] Lit. "now whether these things I say are true (i.e. are facts),
we can make experiment of the things themselves (i.e. of actual
facts to prove to us)."
"And why is this?" I asked. "Merely because they lie in an appointed
place. But now, if you are seeking for a human being, and that too at
times when he is seeking you on his side also, often and often shall
you give up the search in sheer despair: and of this again the reason?
Nothing else save that no appointed place was fixed where one was to
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates by Howard Pyle: were heaved up from below and burst open on the deck and their
contents searched, and if nothing but the meal was found it was
swept overboard. The breeze was whitened with clouds of flour,
and the white meal covered the surface of the ocean for yards
around.
In all, upward of one hundred and fifty thousand dollars was
found concealed beneath the innocent flour and meal. It was no
wonder the pirate captain was so successful, when he could upon
an instant's notice transform himself from a wolf of the ocean to
a peaceful Quaker trader selling flour to the hungry towns and
settlements among the scattered islands of the West Indies, and
Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates |
