| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson: colonies, and still more in the Dutch, I have read that there is an
immediate and lively contact between the dominant and the dominated
race, that a certain sympathy is begotten, or at the least a
transfusion of prejudices, making life easier for both. But the
Englishman sits apart, bursting with pride and ignorance. He
figures among his vassal in the hour of peace with the same
disdainful air that led him on to victory. A passing enthusiasm
for some foreign art or fashion may deceive the world, it cannot
impose upon his intimates. He may be amused by a foreigner as by a
monkey, but he will never condescend to study him with any
patience. Miss Bird, an authoress with whom I profess myself in
|
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 Cavalry General by Xenophon: the trooper to attain a like degree of excellence? To that question I
will now address myself. The art of leaping on to horseback is one
which we would fain persuade the youthful members of the corps to
learn themselves; though, if you choose to give them an
instructor,[24] all the greater credit to yourself. And as to the
older men you cannot do better than accustom them to mount, or rather
to be hoisted up by aid of some one, Persian fashion.[25]
[24] Like Pheidon, in the fragment of Mnesimachus's play "The Breeder
of Horses," ap. Athen. See Courier, ib. p. 55.
[25] See "Anab." IV. iv. 4; "Horsemanship," vi. 12.
With a view to keeping a firm seat on every sort of ground, it may be
|
