| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Anabasis by Xenophon: to aid Cyrus, who enlisted Greek help to try and
take the throne from Artaxerxes, and the ensuing
return of the Greeks, in which Xenophon played a
leading role. This occurred between 401 B.C. and
March 399 B.C.
PREPARER'S NOTE
This was typed from Dakyns' series, "The Works of Xenophon," a
four-volume set. The complete list of Xenophon's works (though
there is doubt about some of these) is:
Work Number of books
The Anabasis 7
Anabasis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: CHAPTER XI.
In the middle of a shadowless square of moonlight, shining on a
smooth and level expanse of young rice-shoots, a little
shelter-hut perched on high posts, the pile of brushwood near by
and the glowing embers of a fire with a man stretched before it,
seemed very small and as if lost in the pale green iridescence
reflected from the ground. On three sides of the clearing,
appearing very far away in the deceptive light, the big trees of
the forest, lashed together with manifold bonds by a mass of
tangled creepers, looked down at the growing young life at their
feet with the sombre resignation of giants that had lost faith in
Almayer's Folly |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Common Sense by Thomas Paine: 35 - 60 - 14,197 - 496,895
40 - 50 - 10,606 - 424,240
45 - 40 - 7,558 - 340,110
58 - 20 - 3,710 - 215,180
85 Sloops, bombs,
and fireships, one 2,000 170,000
with another, _________
Cost 3,266,786
Remains for guns, _________ 233,214
_________
3,500,000
Common Sense |
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 Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: therefore, again see Manon, who begged of me to give you a
thousand tender messages, and to assure you that she loves you
more dearly than ever.'
V
Infected with that leprosy of lust,
Which taints the hoariest years of vicious men
Making them ransack to the very last
The dregs of pleasure for their vanished joys.
BYRON.
"On sitting down to reflect upon this strange turn of fate, I
found myself so perplexed, and consequently so incapable of
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