| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: To Mom
Contents:
The Second Greatest Commandment
A Good Horse and a Better
It's Nut Valuable
Stewardship
The Man Who Believed in Miracles
A Fish Story
Man
Love
Indecision
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Oscar Wilde Miscellaneous by Oscar Wilde: When they see me coming they stand on the prows of their ships and
call to me, but I do not answer them. I go to the little taverns
where the sailors lie all day long drinking black wine and playing
with dice and I sit down with them.
I made the Prince my slave, and his slave who was a Tyrian I made my
lord for the space of a moon.
I put a figured ring on his finger and brought him to my house. I
have wonderful things in my house.
The dust of the desert lies on your hair and your feet are scratched
with thorns and your body is scorched by the sun. Come with me,
Honorius, and I will clothe you in a tunic of silk. I will smear
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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 Lily of the Valley by Honore de Balzac: for the very simple reason that with him I had found peace and rest
for the first time. The interest, possibly very slight, which he
showed in my affairs, seemed to me, lonely and rejected as I was, an
image of paternal love. His hospitable care contrasted so strongly
with the neglect to which I was accustomed, that I felt a childlike
gratitude to the home where no fetters bound me and where I was
welcomed and even courted.
The owners of Frapesle are so associated with the dawn of my life's
happiness that I mingle them in all those memories I love to revive.
Later, and more especially in connection with his letters-patent, I
had the pleasure of doing my host some service. Monsieur de Chessel
The Lily of the Valley |
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 On Horsemanship by Xenophon: roughness he will drop it; then when the smooth is given him instead,
he is delighted with its smoothness, and whatever he has learnt before
upon the rough, he will perform with greater relish on the smooth. He
may certainly, out of contempt for its very smoothness, perpetually
try to get a purchase on it, and that is why we attach large discs to
the smooth bit, the effect of which is to make him open his mouth, and
drop the mouthpiece. It is possible to make the rough bit of every
degree of roughness by keeping it slack or taut.
[4] See Morgan, op. cit. p. 144 foll.
But, whatever the type of bit may be, let it in any case be flexible.
If it be stiff, at whatever point the horse seizes it he must take it
On Horsemanship |
