| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: me, Socrates, and you Hippocrates, what is Protagoras, and why are you
going to pay him money,--how should we answer? I know that Pheidias is a
sculptor, and that Homer is a poet; but what appellation is given to
Protagoras? how is he designated?
They call him a Sophist, Socrates, he replied.
Then we are going to pay our money to him in the character of a Sophist?
Certainly.
But suppose a person were to ask this further question: And how about
yourself? What will Protagoras make of you, if you go to see him?
He answered, with a blush upon his face (for the day was just beginning to
dawn, so that I could see him): Unless this differs in some way from 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 The Sportsman by Xenophon: is the victim of a misfortune alien to its physical nature.
[46] {meta touton}, sc. "with these other causes"; al. "with the
dogs"; i.e. "like a second nightmare pack."
[47] Reading {orthion}, or if {orthon}, transl. "straight on."
[48] {kata podas}, i.e. "by running down"; cf. "Mem." II. vi. 9;
"Cyrop." I. vi. 40, re two kinds of hound: the one for scent, the
other for speed.
The fact is, there is no other animal of equal size which is at all
its match in speed. Witness the conformation of its body: the light,
small drooping head [narrow in front];[49] the [thin cylindrical][50]
neck, not stiff and of a moderate length; straight shoulder-blades,
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne: ocean could have reached them, through the obscurity, while suspended in
those elevated zones. Their rapid descent alone had informed them of the
dangers which they ran from the waves. However, the balloon, lightened of
heavy articles, such as ammunition, arms, and provisions, had risen into
the higher layers of the atmosphere, to a height of 4,500 feet. The
voyagers, after having discovered that the sea extended beneath them, and
thinking the dangers above less dreadful than those below, did not hesitate
to throw overboard even their most useful articles, while they endeavored
to lose no more of that fluid, the life of their enterprise, which
sustained them above the abyss.
The night passed in the midst of alarms which would have been death to
The Mysterious Island |
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 The Son of Tarzan by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the Hon. Morison had anticipated. The latter nodded his head
in token of his entire willingness to pay. He would have
promised a sum far beyond his resources just as readily, for
he had no intention of paying anything--his one reason for
seeming to comply with The Sheik's demands was that the wait
for the coming of the ransom money would give him the time and
the opportunity to free Meriem if he found that she wished to
be freed. The Arab's statement that he was her father naturally
raised the question in the Hon. Morison's mind as to precisely
what the girl's attitude toward escape might be. It seemed, of
course, preposterous that this fair and beautiful young woman
The Son of Tarzan |
