| 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: when you come to actual fighting.
Soc. Yet they are both sure to meet with enemies?
Nic. There is no doubt about that.
Soc. Then is it not to the interest of both to get the upper hand of
these?
Nic. Certainly; but you omit to tell us what service organisation and
the art of management will render when it comes to actual fighting.
Soc. Why, it is just then, I presume, it will be of most service, for
the good economist knows that nothing is so advantageous or so
lucrative as victory in battle, or to put it negatively, nothing so
disastrous and expensive as defeat. He will enthusiastically seek out
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 Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: lying land, was the finest, the most aristocratic property in all
the neighborhood, and the boy-friend could not resist the
temptation of repeating Jacob's grand design, for the endless
amusement of the school. The betrayal hurt Jacob more keenly than
the ridicule. It left a wound that never ceased to rankle; yet,
with the inconceivable perversity of unthinking natures, precisely
this joke (as the people supposed it to be) had been perpetuated,
until "Jake Flint's Journey" was a synonyme for any absurd or
extravagant expectation. Perhaps no one imagined how much pain he
was keeping alive; for almost any other man than Jacob would have
joined in the laugh against himself and thus good-naturedly buried
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