| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: directed. Most of the jests appear to have a serious meaning; but we have
lost the clue to some of them, and cannot determine whether, as in the
Cratylus, Plato has or has not mixed up purely unmeaning fun with his
satire.
The two discourses of Socrates may be contrasted in several respects with
the exhibition of the Sophists: (1) In their perfect relevancy to the
subject of discussion, whereas the Sophistical discourses are wholly
irrelevant: (2) In their enquiring sympathetic tone, which encourages the
youth, instead of 'knocking him down,' after the manner of the two
Sophists: (3) In the absence of any definite conclusion--for while
Socrates and the youth are agreed that philosophy is to be studied, they
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: superfluous; and that would have involved, in turn, the facing of
the fact that The Ring was no longer a Niblung epic, and really
demanded modern costumes, tall hats for Tarnhelms, factories for
Nibelheims, villas for Valhallas, and so on--in short, a complete
confession of the extent to which the old Niblung epic had become
the merest pretext and name directory in the course of Wagner's
travail. But, as Wagner's most eminent English interpreter once
put it to me at Bayreuth between the acts of Night Falls On The
Gods, the master wanted to "Lohengrinize" again after his long
abstention from opera; and Siegfried's Death (first sketched in
1848, the year before the rising in Dresden and the subsequent
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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 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: from du Tillet, who confirmed the answer without blushing. Cesar, on
the other hand, grew scarlet. When the evening was over, and just as
Ferdinand was going to bed, Birotteau took him into the shop on a
pretext of business.
"Du Tillet," said the worthy man, "three thousand francs are missing
from the desk. I suspect no one; but the circumstance of the old louis
seems too much against you not to oblige me to speak of it. We will
not go to bed till we have found where the error lies,--for, after
all, it may be only an error. Perhaps you took something on account of
your salary?"
Du Tillet said at once that he had taken the louis. The perfumer
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
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 Adventure by Jack London: whishing through the air. She saw the white, cooked mark of the
weal clear across the sullen, handsome face, and still what was
practically in the same instant she saw the man with the puckered
face, overridden, go down before her, and she heard his snarling
and grimacing chatter-for all the world like an angry monkey. Then
she was free and away, heading the horse at top speed for the
house.
Out of her sea-training she was able to appreciate Sheldon's
executiveness when she burst in on him with her news. Springing
from the steamer-chair in which he had been lounging while waiting
for breakfast, he clapped his hands for the house-boys; and, while
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