| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: he went out into the garden suddenly, and I could hear him sobbing
in the darkness.
The humiliation of their arms and the loss of Alsace and Lorraine
made a sore pull on the endurance of this sensitive people; and
their hearts are still hot, not so much against Germany as against
the Empire. In what other country will you find a patriotic ditty
bring all the world into the street? But affliction heightens
love; and we shall never know we are Englishmen until we have lost
India. Independent America is still the cross of my existence; I
cannot think of Farmer George without abhorrence; and I never feel
more warmly to my own land than when I see the Stars and Stripes,
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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 On Horsemanship by Xenophon: It would be good for the groom to know how to give a leg up in the
Persian fashion,[7] so that in case of illness or infirmity of age the
master himself may have a man to help him on to horseback without
trouble, or, if he so wish, be able to oblige a friend with a man to
mount him.[8]
[7] Cf. "Anab." IV. iv. 4; "Hipparch," i. 17; "Cyrop." VII. i. 38.
[8] An {anaboleus}. Cf. Plut. "C. Gracch." 7.
The one best precept--the golden rule--in dealing with a horse is
never to approach him angrily. Anger is so devoid of forethought that
it will often drive a man to do things which in a calmer mood he will
regret.[9] Thus, when a horse is shy of any object and refuses to
 On Horsemanship |