| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: [4] See Aristot. "Pol." ii. 5 (Jowett, i. pp. xxxi. and 34; ii. p.
53); Plat. "Laws," viii. 845 A; Newman, "Pol. Aristot." ii. 249
foll.
[5] "Has not a carriage of his own."
And here is another institution attributed to Lycurgus which scarcely
coincides with the customs elsewhere in vogue. A hunting party returns
from the chase, belated. They want provisions--they have nothing
prepared themselves. To meet this contingency he made it a rule that
owners[6] are to leave behind the food that has been dressed; and the
party in need will open the seals, take out what they want, seal up
the remainder, and leave it. Accordingly, by his system of give-and-
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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 Symposium by Xenophon: give them a zest for toil that mocks at danger, and enables them where
honour the fair vision leads, to follow.[27] We fill their souls with
deeper modesty, a self-constraint more staunch; about the things they
care for most, there floats a halo of protecting awe.[28] Fools and
unwise are they who choose not beauteous men to be their generals. How
merrily would I, at any rate, march through fire by the side of
Cleinias;[29] and so would all of you, I know full well, in company of
him who now addresses you.
[25] "We beauties."
[26] The {eispnelas} in relation to the {aitas}, the Inspirer to the
Hearer. Cf. Theocr. xii. 13; Ael. "V. H." iii. 12. See Muller,
The Symposium |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: All these years when he had been so cold, so hard toward her, it
simply was because he disliked her. She remembered the day she
was hurt, and the night her first baby came. Martin's brutality
even now kindled in her a dull blazing anger, and as she realized
what depths of feeling were in him, his callousness seemed
intensified an hundred-fold. Well, she was having her revenge.
All his life he had thwarted her, stolen from her, used her as
one could not use even a hired hand, worked her more as a
slave-driver hurries his underlings that profits may mount; now,
by her mere existence, she was thwarting him. She saw him again
as he had flashed before her when he had talked of Rose and she
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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 Whirligigs by O. Henry: man to get to thinking he's Rockefeller, or James O'Neill
either.
Inside, the purser was untying a great roll of newspapers,
many of them weeks old, gathered in the lower ports by
the Pajaro to be distributed at casual stopping-places.
Thus do the beneficent voyagers scatter news and enter-
tainment among the prisoners of sea and mountains.
Tio Pancho, the hotel proprietor, set his great silver-
rimmed aiteojos upon his nose and divided the papers
into a number of smaller rolls. A barefooted muchacho
dashed in, desiring the post of messenger.
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