| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: every one will trust us,--Hellenes and barbarians, men and women,--and we
may do as we please about them, and no one will like to interfere with us;
we shall be free, and masters of others; and these things will be really
ours, for we shall be benefited by them. But in things of which we have no
understanding, no one will trust us to do as seems good to us--they will
hinder us as far as they can; and not only strangers, but father and
mother, and the friend, if there be one, who is dearer still, will also
hinder us; and we shall be subject to others; and these things will not be
ours, for we shall not be benefited by them. Do you agree?
He assented.
And shall we be friends to others, and will any others love us, in as far
Lysis |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: this man's appearance was totally unlike any sensation produced by the
other passengers who used the street; for the first time in her life
she was moved to pity for some one else than herself and her mother;
she made no reply to the absurd conjectures that supplied material for
the old woman's provoking volubility, and drew her long needle in
silence through the web of stretched net; she only regretted not
having seen the stranger more closely, and looked forward to the
morrow to form a definite opinion of him.
It was the first time, indeed, that a man passing down the street had
ever given rise to much thought in her mind. She generally had nothing
but a smile in response to her mother's hypotheses, for the old woman
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