| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: transport goods to countries outside Attica; they must yield, or
they shall not have the use of the sea."
[15] {lobasthai}. This "poetical" word comes to mean "harry,"
"pillage," in the common dialect.
There is just one thing which the Athenians lack. Supposing that they
were the inhabitants of an island,[16] and were still, as now, rulers
of the sea, they would have had it in their power to work whatever
mischief they liked, and to suffer no evil in return (as long as they
kept command of the sea), neither the ravaging of their territory nor
the expectation of an enemy's approach. Whereas at present the farming
portion of the community and the wealthy landowners are ready[17] to
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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 Bunner Sisters by Edith Wharton: which had seemed so hot in July. She began to feel a little
bewildered as she stepped ashore, but a paternal policeman put her
into the right car, and as in a dream she found herself retracing
the way to Mrs. Hochmuller's door. She had told the conductor the
name of the street at which she wished to get out, and presently
she stood in the biting wind at the corner near the beer-saloon,
where the sun had once beat down on her so fiercely. At length an
empty car appeared, its yellow flank emblazoned with the name of
Mrs. Hochmuller's suburb, and Ann Eliza was presently jolting past
the narrow brick houses islanded between vacant lots like giant
piles in a desolate lagoon. When the car reached the end of its
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