| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: that my bosom is full, and that I could make another speech as good as that
of Lysias, and different. Now I am certain that this is not an invention
of my own, who am well aware that I know nothing, and therefore I can only
infer that I have been filled through the ears, like a pitcher, from the
waters of another, though I have actually forgotten in my stupidity who was
my informant.
PHAEDRUS: That is grand:--but never mind where you heard the discourse or
from whom; let that be a mystery not to be divulged even at my earnest
desire. Only, as you say, promise to make another and better oration,
equal in length and entirely new, on the same subject; and I, like the nine
Archons, will promise to set up a golden image at Delphi, not only of
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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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: It had scarcely passed before they heard 'a rushing sound'; one of
the gentlemen thrust back the party of ladies under a shed, and the
mob passed again. A fine-looking young man was in their hands; and
Mrs. Jenkin saw him with his mouth open as if he sought to speak,
saw him tossed from one to another like a ball, and then saw him no
more. 'He was dead a few instants after, but the crowd hid that
terror from us. My knees shook under me and my sight left me.'
With this street tragedy, the curtain rose upon their second
revolution.
The attack on Spirito Santo, and the capitulation and departure of
the troops speedily followed. Genoa was in the hands of the
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