| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The New Machiavelli by H. G. Wells: research of all sorts than our formless host of Liberals seemed
likely to do; and they were altogether more accessible than the
Young Liberals to bold, constructive ideas affecting the
universities and upper classes. The Liberals are abjectly afraid of
the universities. I found myself constantly falling into line with
these men in our discussions, and more and more hostile to Dayton's
sentimentalising evasions of definite schemes and Minns' trust in
such things as the "Spirit of our People" and the "General Trend of
Progress." It wasn't that I thought them very much righter than
their opponents; I believe all definite party "sides" at any time
are bound to be about equally right and equally lop-sided; but that
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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 Hiero by Xenophon: but about these mercenary troops have you aught to say? Can you
suggest a means to avoid the hatred of which they are the cause? Or
will you tell me that a ruler who has won the affection of his
subjects has no need for body-guards?
Nay, in good sooth (replied Simonides), distinctly he will need them
none the less. I know it is with certain human beings as with horses,
some trick of the blood they have, some inborn tendency; the more
their wants are satisfied, the more their wantonness will out. Well
then, to sober and chastise wild spirits, there is nothing like the
terror of your men-at-arms.[1] And as to gentler natures,[2] I do not
know by what means you could bestow so many benefits upon them as by
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