| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: know, before you enter on politics; and then you will have an antidote
which will keep you out of harm's way.
ALCIBIADES: Good advice, Socrates, but I wish that you would explain to me
in what way I am to take care of myself.
SOCRATES: Have we not made an advance? for we are at any rate tolerably
well agreed as to what we are, and there is no longer any danger, as we
once feared, that we might be taking care not of ourselves, but of
something which is not ourselves.
ALCIBIADES: That is true.
SOCRATES: And the next step will be to take care of the soul, and look to
that?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Crisis in Russia by Arthur Ransome: into definite districts, and they worked these with soldiers
and with deserters. Gradually their work developed, and
they built themselves narrow-gauge railways for the
transport of the wood. Then they needed wagons and
locomotives, and of course immediately found themselves at
loggerheads with the railway authorities. Finally, they
struck a bargain with the railwaymen, and were allowed to
take broken-down wagons which the railway people were
not in a position to mend. Using such skilled labor as
they had, they mended such wagons as were given them,
and later made a practice of going to the railway yards and
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