| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: of manhood: there the great drinkers are the greatest men"
(Frere); id. "Knights," 179; "Clouds," 823; so Latin "vir." See
Holden ad loc.
[2] "Us lesser mortals."
To all which Hiero made answer: That the majority of men, Simonides,
should be deluded by the glamour of a despotism in no respect
astonishes me, since it is the very essence of the crowd, if I am not
mistaken, to rush wildly to conjecture touching the happiness or
wretchedness of people at first sight.
Now the nature of a tyrrany is such: it presents, nay flaunts, a show
of costliest possessions unfolded to the general gaze, which rivets
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: through sense, and is full of the prickings and ticklings of desire, the
obedient steed, then as always under the government of shame, refrains from
leaping on the beloved; but the other, heedless of the pricks and of the
blows of the whip, plunges and runs away, giving all manner of trouble to
his companion and the charioteer, whom he forces to approach the beloved
and to remember the joys of love. They at first indignantly oppose him and
will not be urged on to do terrible and unlawful deeds; but at last, when
he persists in plaguing them, they yield and agree to do as he bids them.
And now they are at the spot and behold the flashing beauty of the beloved;
which when the charioteer sees, his memory is carried to the true beauty,
whom he beholds in company with Modesty like an image placed upon a holy
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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 A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: gauged the man's infatuation, and was very well satisfied to find that
the varnished doors of a tolerably sumptuous future were ready to turn
at a word from Antonia so soon as his own fancy had passed off.
" 'And that other one yonder?' asked he, pointing out the stout fine-
looking elderly man with the Cross of the Legion of Honor. 'Who is
he?'
" 'A retired custom-house officer.'
" 'The cut of his countenance is not reassuring,' said Maxime,
beholding the Sieur Denisart.
"And indeed the old soldier held himself upright as a steeple. His
head was remarkable for the amount of powder and pomatum bestowed upon
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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 An Open Letter on Translating by Dr. Martin Luther: happy Christians have been over these blasphemies, and how right
they have been in doing them!
So out with it, you papal asses! Say that this is the teaching of
Christendom: these stinking lies which you villains and traitors
have forced upon Christendom and for the sake of which you
murderers have killed many Christians. Why each letter of every
papal law gives testimony to the fact that nothing has ever been
taught by the counsel and the consent of Christendom. There is
nothing there but "districte precipiendo mandamus" ["we teach and
strictly command"]. That has been your Holy Spirit. Christendom
has had to suffer this tyranny. This tyranny has robbed it of the
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