| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On Horsemanship by Xenophon: [2] See Berenger, ii. 68.
[3] Lit. "testicles."
There are, indeed, other methods of teaching these arts.[4] Some do so
by touching the horse with a switch under the hocks, others employ an
attendant to run alongside and strike the horse with a stick under the
gaskins. For ourselves, however, far the best method of
instruction,[5] as we keep repeating, is to let the horse feel that
whatever he does in obedience to the rider's wishes will be followed
by some rest and relaxation.
[4] Lit. "People, it must be admitted, claim to teach these arts in
varous ways--some by . . . others by bidding . . ."
On Horsemanship |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: to be a dagger than a spur. You are bound either to fall a victim or
to become a partisan in this incessant strife of ambitions, desires,
and hatreds, in the midst of which you are placed; and by slow degrees
the picture of vice triumphant and virtue made ridiculous produces its
effect on a young man, and he wavers; life in Paris soon rubs the
bloom from conscience, the infernal work of demoralization has begun,
and is soon accomplished. The first of pleasures, that which at the
outset comprehends all the others, is set about with such perils that
it is impossible not to reflect upon the least actions which it
provokes, impossible not to calculate all its consequences. These
calculations lead to selfishness. If some poor student, carried away
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: power of his acts, in virtue of which he clung to all things
honourable and thrust aside all baseness.
Agesilaus showed such reverence for things divine that even his
enemies regarded his oaths and solemn treaties as more to be relied on
than the tie of friendship amongst themselves. These same men, who
would shrink from too close intercourse with one another, delivered
themselves into the hands of Agesilaus without fear. And lest the
assertion should excite discredit, I may name some illustrious
examples. Such was Spithridates the Persian, who knew that
Pharnabazus,[1] whilst negotiating to marry the daughter of the great
king, was minded to seize his own daughter unwedded. Resenting such
|
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 Kreutzer Sonata by Leo Tolstoy: that, the essential point remains the same. She is, she remains,
an object of sensual desire, and she knows it. It is slavery,
for slavery is nothing else than the utilization of the labor of
some for the enjoyment of others. That slavery may not exist
people must refuse to enjoy the labor of others, and look upon it
as a shameful act and as a sin.
*A suburb of Moscow.
"Actually, this is what happens. They abolish the external
form, they suppress the formal sales of slaves, and then they
imagine and assure others that slavery is abolished. They are
unwilling to see that it still exists, since people, as before,
The Kreutzer Sonata |
