| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from American Notes by Rudyard Kipling: It grumbled madly for a moment or two, and then was still. I
crept over the steaming lime--it was the burning marl on which
Satan lay--and looked fearfully down its mouth. You should never
look a gift geyser in the mouth.
I beheld a horrible, slippery, slimy funnel with water rising and
falling ten feet at a time. Then the water rose to lip level
with a rush, and an infernal bubbling troubled this Devil's
Bethesda before the sullen heave of the crest of a wave lapped
over the edge and made me run.
Mark the nature of the human soul! I had begun with awe, not to
say terror, for this was my first experience of such things. I
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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 Apology by Xenophon: alike in the glance of his eye, his gesture, and his step.
[50] {omologoumenos}. For the use of the word L. Dind. cf. Diog.
Laert. vii. 87, {dioper protos o Zenon en to peri anthropou
phuseos telos eipe to omologoumenos te phusei zen} (Cicero's
"naturae convenienter vivere," L. and S.), whereas the regular
Attic use is different. Cf. "Oec." i. 11, {kai omologoumenos ge o
logos emin khorei} = "consentanea ratione." "Our argument runs on
all-fours." Plat. "Symp." 186 B, {to nasoun omologoumenos eteron
te kai anomoion esti}, "ut inter omnes convenit."
And when he perceived those who followed by his side in tears, "What
is this?" he asked. "Why do you weep now?[51] Do you not know that for
 The Apology |