| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Memorabilia by Xenophon: forces first of Athens and then of our opponents?
Glauc. Pardon me. I could not tell you them off-hand at a moment's
notice.
Or (added Socrates), if you have got the figures on paper, you might
produce them. I cannot tell how anxious I am to hear your statement.
Glauc. No, I assure you, I have not got them even on paper yet.
Soc. Well then, we will defer tending advice on the topic of peace or
war, in a maiden speech at any rate.[10] I can understand that, owing
to the magnitude of the questions, in these early days of your
ministry you have not yet fully examined them. But come, I am sure
that you have studied the defences of the country, at all events, and
The Memorabilia |
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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: course; the political soil itself steals forth by
imperceptible degrees, like a travelling glacier, carrying on
its bosom not only political parties but their flag-posts and
cantonments; so that what appears to be an eternal city
founded on hills is but a flying island of Laputa. It is for
this reason in particular that we are all becoming Socialists
without knowing it; by which I would not in the least refer
to the acute case of Mr. Hyndman and his horn-blowing
supporters, sounding their trumps of a Sunday within the
walls of our individualist Jericho - but to the stealthy
change that has come over the spirit of Englishmen and
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