| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from At the Sign of the Cat & Racket by Honore de Balzac: she perceived that there was a compact between herself and the artist.
The suffocating heat, the dazzling sight of beautiful dresses, the
bewilderment produced in Augustine's brain by the truth of coloring,
the multitude of living or painted figures, the profusion of gilt
frames, gave her a sense of intoxication which doubled her alarms. She
would perhaps have fainted if an unknown rapture had not surged up in
her heart to vivify her whole being, in spite of this chaos of
sensations. She nevertheless believed herself to be under the power of
the Devil, of whose awful snares she had been warned of by the
thundering words of preachers. This moment was to her like a moment of
madness. She found herself accompanied to her cousin's carriage by the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: and hold in the horse with the bit, to prevent himself being hurled
headforemost down the slope himself if not his horse.
[7] Or, "to each set of occurrences."
[8] Al. "when the horse is being brought to a poise" (Morgan); and see
Hermann ap. Schneid., {analambanein} = retinere equum, anhalten,
pariren. i.e. "rein in" of the "Parade."
It is a correct principle to vary these exercises, which should be
gone through sometimes in one place and sometimes in another, and
should sometimes be shorter and sometimes longer in duration. The
horse will take much more kindly to them if you do not confine him to
one place and one routine.
 On Horsemanship |