| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: source of safety or of danger to the People, and in these the People
prudently abstains from sharing; as, for instance, it does not think
it incumbent on itself to share in the functions of the general or of
the commander of cavalry.[10] The sovereign People recognises the fact
that in forgoing the personal exercise of these offices, and leaving
them to the control of the more powerful[11] citizens, it secures the
balance of advantage to itself. It is only those departments of
government which bring emolument[12] and assist the private estate
that the People cares to keep in its own hands.
[3] Cf. "Mem." I. ii. 58 foll.
[4] Lit. "ply the oar and propel the galleys."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Margret Howth: A Story of To-day by Rebecca Harding Davis: of Christmas took hold of him, after this,-- famished his heart.
As it approached in the slow-coming winter, the days growing
shorter, and the nights longer and more solitary, so Margret
became more real to him,--not rejected and lost, but as the wife
she might have been, with the simple, passionate love she gave
him once. The thought grew intolerable to him; yet there was not
a homely pleasure of those years gone, when the old school-master
kept high holiday on Christmas, that he did not recall and linger
over with a boyish yearning, now that these things were over
forever. He chafed under his weakness. If the day would but
come when he could go out and conquer his fate, as a man ought to
Margret Howth: A Story of To-day |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: their adulation. And it was therefore instructive to note what
effect the "deadening atmosphere of mediocrity" (I quote Miss
Croft) was having on him.
I have mentioned that Mrs. Gisburn was rich; and it was
immediately perceptible that her husband was extracting from this
circumstance a delicate but substantial satisfaction. It is, as
a rule, the people who scorn money who get most out of it; and
Jack's elegant disdain of his wife's big balance enabled him,
with an appearance of perfect good-breeding, to transmute it into
objects of art and luxury. To the latter, I must add, he
remained relatively indifferent; but he was buying Renaissance
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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 The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde: it.]
We will see
That you are furnished with such equipage
As doth befit your honour and our state.
GUIDO
I thank your Grace most heartily.
DUKE
Tell me again
What is your name?
GUIDO
Guido Ferranti, sir.
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