| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Crito by Plato: spend their money in helping you to escape. I say, therefore, do not
hesitate on our account, and do not say, as you did in the court (compare
Apol.), that you will have a difficulty in knowing what to do with yourself
anywhere else. For men will love you in other places to which you may go,
and not in Athens only; there are friends of mine in Thessaly, if you like
to go to them, who will value and protect you, and no Thessalian will give
you any trouble. Nor can I think that you are at all justified, Socrates,
in betraying your own life when you might be saved; in acting thus you are
playing into the hands of your enemies, who are hurrying on your
destruction. And further I should say that you are deserting your own
children; for you might bring them up and educate them; instead of which
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: heart in the building, and it still lies among the ruins.'
'How very poetical!' she said, with a little choking laugh, unknown
relentings, unfamiliar softnesses, moving within her. 'What would
you be at?' she added, hardening her voice.
'I would be at this,' he answered; 'and hard it is to say. I would
be at this:- Seraphina, I am your husband after all, and a poor fool
that loves you. Understand,' he cried almost fiercely, 'I am no
suppliant husband; what your love refuses I would scorn to receive
from your pity. I do not ask, I would not take it. And for
jealousy, what ground have I? A dog-in-the-manger jealousy is a
thing the dogs may laugh at. But at least, in the world's eye, I am
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Cavalry General by Xenophon: active help of every trooper who would wish to be a zealous and
unhesitating fellow-worker with his officer.[11]
[11] Cf. "Hiero," vii. 2; "Cyrop." II. iv. 10.
III
I come at length to certain duties which devolve upon the general of
cavalry himself in person: and first and foremost, it concerns him to
obtain the favour of the gods by sacrifices in behalf of the state
cavalry; and in the next place to make the great procession at the
festivals a spectacle worth seeing; and further, with regard to all
those public shows demanded by the state, wherever held,[1] whether in
the grounds of the Acadamy or the Lyceum, at Phaleron or within the
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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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: Of thoughts that lie beyond the reach
Of thy few words of English speech.
A bondage sweetly brooked, a strife
That gives thy gestures grace and life.
Ah, yet unspoilt Nausicaa of the North; descendant of the dark
tender-hearted Celtic girl, and the fair deep-hearted Scandinavian
Viking, thank God for thy heather and fresh air, and the kine thou
tendest, and the wool thou spinnest; and come not to seek thy
fortune, child, in wicked London town; nor import, as they tell me
thou art doing fast, the ugly fashions of that London town, clumsy
copies of Parisian cockneydom, into thy Highland home; nor give up
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