| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: other times, if the pack be strong enough to make light of the
guardians of a flock, they will marshal their battalions, as it were,
some to drive off the guard and others to effect the capture, and so
by stealth or fair fight they provide themselves with the necessaries
of life. I say, if dumb beasts are capable of conducting a raid with
so much sense and skill, it is hard if any average man cannot prove
himself equally intelligent with creatures which themselves fall
victims to the craft of man.
[19] e.g. defiles, bridges, outposts, stores, etc.
[20] e.g. a line of outposts, troops in billets or bivouac, etc.
[21] "It is a maxim, the quarry should be weaker than the pursuer."
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Cratylus by Plato: hearer rejoice together in their newly-discovered faculty. At first there
would be few such cries, and little danger of mistaking or confusing them.
For the mind of primitive man had a narrow range of perceptions and
feelings; his senses were microscopic; twenty or thirty sounds or gestures
would be enough for him, nor would he have any difficulty in finding them.
Naturally he broke out into speech--like the young infant he laughed and
babbled; but not until there were hearers as well as speakers did language
begin. Not the interjection or the vocal imitation of the object, but the
interjection or the vocal imitation of the object understood, is the first
rudiment of human speech.
After a while the word gathers associations, and has an independent
|
