| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: evil. Pausanias is very earnest in the defence of such loves; and he
speaks of them as generally approved among Hellenes and disapproved by
barbarians. His speech is 'more words than matter,' and might have been
composed by a pupil of Lysias or of Prodicus, although there is no hint
given that Plato is specially referring to them. As Eryximachus says, 'he
makes a fair beginning, but a lame ending.'
Plato transposes the two next speeches, as in the Republic he would
transpose the virtues and the mathematical sciences. This is done partly
to avoid monotony, partly for the sake of making Aristophanes 'the cause of
wit in others,' and also in order to bring the comic and tragic poet into
juxtaposition, as if by accident. A suitable 'expectation' of Aristophanes
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: upon shore, he would make it good to their master: so partly rowing
and partly driving, our boat went away to the northward, sloping
towards the shore almost as far as Winterton Ness.
We were not much more than a quarter of an hour out of our ship
till we saw her sink, and then I understood for the first time what
was meant by a ship foundering in the sea. I must acknowledge I
had hardly eyes to look up when the seamen told me she was sinking;
for from the moment that they rather put me into the boat than that
I might be said to go in, my heart was, as it were, dead within me,
partly with fright, partly with horror of mind, and the thoughts of
what was yet before me.
Robinson Crusoe |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Pupil by Henry James: thought himself very sharp that first day in hitting them all off
in his mind with the "cosmopolite" label. Later it seemed feeble
and colourless - confessedly helplessly provisional.
He yet when he first applied it felt a glow of joy - for an
instructor he was still empirical - rise from the apprehension that
living with them would really he to see life. Their sociable
strangeness was an intimation of that - their chatter of tongues,
their gaiety and good humour, their infinite dawdling (they were
always getting themselves up, but it took forever, and Pemberton
had once found Mr. Moreen shaving in the drawing-room), their
French, their Italian and, cropping up in the foreign fluencies,
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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 Pellucidar by Edgar Rice Burroughs: cared less; but I imagine that the sight of the fleet and
the sound of the guns brought him to his senses, for it
was not long before he sent a deputation to me, inviting
me to visit him in his village. Here he apologized for
the treatment he had accorded me, very gladly swore
allegiance to the empire, and received in return the title
of king.
We remained in Thuria only long enough to arrange
the treaty with Goork, among the other details of which
was his promise to furnish the imperial army with a
thousand lidi, or Thurian beasts of burden, and drivers
Pellucidar |
