| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cousin Pons by Honore de Balzac: see. To my little way of thinking, we must do the work between us. You
cannot go about Paris to give lessons for it tires you, and then you
are not fit to do anything afterwards, and somebody must sit up of a
night with M. Pons, now that he is getting worse and worse. I will run
round to-day to all your pupils and tell them that you are ill; is it
not so? And then you can spend the nights with our lamb, and sleep of
a morning from five o'clock till, let us say, two in the afternoon. I
myself will take the day, the most tiring part, for there is your
breakfast and dinner to get ready, and the bed to make, and the things
to change, and the doses of medicine to give. I could not hold out for
another ten days at this rate. What would become of you if I were to
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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: horse for mounting or "in doing the demi-passade" (so Morgan, op.
cit. p. 126).
The human subject would seem to point to this conclusion. When a man
wants to lift anything from off the ground he essays to do so by
bringing the legs apart and not by bringing them together.
A horse ought not to have large testicles, though that is not a point
to be determined in the colt.
And now, as regards the lower parts, the hocks,[31] or shanks and
fetlocks and hoofs, we have only to repeat what has been said already
about those of the fore-legs.
[31] {ton katothen astragelon, e knemon}, lit. "the under (or hinder?)
On Horsemanship |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Phantasmagoria and Other Poems by Lewis Carroll: They take me a walk: though tired and stiff,
To climb the heights I madly agree;
And, after a tumble or so from the cliff,
They kindly suggest the Sea.
I try the rocks, and I think it cool
That they laugh with such an excess of glee,
As I heavily slip into every pool
That skirts the cold cold Sea.
Ye Carpette Knyghte
I have a horse - a ryghte good horse -
Ne doe Y envye those
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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 The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: Anglus, Astrologorum hujusce Saeculi facile Princeps. Signior
Magliabecchi, the Great Duke's famous library-keeper, spends
almost his whole letter in compliments and praises. 'Tis true,
the renowned Professor of Astronomy at Utrecht, seems to differ
from me in one article; but it is in a modest manner, that
becomes a philosopher; as, Pace tanti viri dixerim: And pag.55,
he seems to lay the error upon the printer (as indeed it ought)
and says, vel forsan error typographi, cum alioquin
Bickerstaffius ver doctissimus, etc.
If Mr. Partridge had followed this example in the controversy
between us, he might have spared me the trouble of justifying
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