| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske: generally supposed to be as indisputable as any event in modern
history. Such is, however, hardly the case. Plausible evidence
has been brought to prove that Jeanne d'Arc was never burnt at
the stake, but lived to a ripe age, and was even happily married
to a nobleman of high rank and reputation. We shall abridge Mr.
Delepierre's statement of this curious case.
In the archives of Metz, Father Vignier discovered the following
remarkable entry: "In the year 1436, Messire Phlin Marcou was
Sheriff of Metz, and on the 20th day of May of the aforesaid year
came the maid Jeanne, who had been in France, to La Grange of
Ormes, near St. Prive, and was taken there to confer with any one
The Unseen World and Other Essays |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: of the feast itself. If such a thing be difficult at the time,
recollect that you who are not weary are being served by those
that are; you who are eating and drinking by those who do
neither; you who are talking by those who are silent; you who are
at ease by those who are under constraint. Thus no sudden wrath
will betray you into unreasonable conduct, nor will you behave
harshly by irritating another.
CLXXXI
When Xanthippe was chiding Socrates for making scanty
preparation for entertaining his friends, he answered:--"If they
are friends of our, they will not care for that; if they are not,
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
