The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Flower Fables by Louisa May Alcott: And now Bud left the old forest far behind her. Golden-Wing
bore her swiftly along, and she looked down on the green mountains,
and the peasant's cottages, that stood among overshadowing trees;
and the earth looked bright, with its broad, blue rivers winding
through soft meadows, the singing birds, and flowers, who kept their
bright eyes ever on the sky.
And she sang gayly as they floated in the clear air, while her friend
kept time with his waving wings, and ever as they went along all grew
fairer; and thus they came to Fairy-Land.
As Bud passed through the gates, she no longer wondered that the
exiled Fairies wept and sorrowed for the lovely home they had lost.
Flower Fables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: has his eyes fixed on the straight course after making a turn, is the
time to urge him to full speed. In battle, obviously, these turns and
wheelings are with a view to charging or retiring; consequently, to
practise quickening the pace after wheeling is desirable. When the
horse seems to have had enough of the manege, it would be good to give
him a slight pause, and then suddenly to put him to his quickest, away
from his fellows first,[21] and now towards them; and then again to
quiet him down in mid-career as short as possible;[22] and from halt
once more to turn him right-about and off again full charge. It is
easy to predict that the day will come when there will be need of each
of these manouvres.
On Horsemanship |