| 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: 'But are there any beautiful things? And if there are such, are they the
same or not the same as absolute beauty?' Socrates replies that they are
not the same, but each of them has some beauty present with it. 'And are
you an ox because you have an ox present with you?' After a few more
amphiboliae, in which Socrates, like Ctesippus, in self-defence borrows the
weapons of the brothers, they both confess that the two heroes are
invincible; and the scene concludes with a grand chorus of shouting and
laughing, and a panegyrical oration from Socrates:--
First, he praises the indifference of Dionysodorus and Euthydemus to public
opinion; for most persons would rather be refuted by such arguments than
use them in the refutation of others. Secondly, he remarks upon their
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: corner by Deadman's Lane. And, with all inconsistencies and
freedoms, there is a power shown in these sequences of cuts:
a power of joining on one action or one humour to another; a
power of following out the moods, even of the dismal
subterhuman fiends engendered by the artist's fancy; a power
of sustained continuous realisation, step by step, in
nature's order, that can tell a story, in all its ins and
outs, its pauses and surprises, fully and figuratively, like
the art of words.
One such sequence is the fight of Christian and Apollyon -
six cuts, weird and fiery, like the text. The pilgrim is
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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 Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: to a slow fine shudder, and though he remained staring--though he
stared in fact but the harder--turned off and regained her chair.
It was the end of what she had been intending, but it left him
thinking only of that.
"Well, you don't say--?"
She had touched in her passage a bell near the chimney and had sunk
back strangely pale. "I'm afraid I'm too ill."
"Too ill to tell me?" it sprang up sharp to him, and almost to his
lips, the fear she might die without giving him light. He checked
himself in time from so expressing his question, but she answered
as if she had heard the words.
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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 Aeneid by Virgil: Nor want they lots, nor judges to review
The wrongful sentence, and award a new.
Minos, the strict inquisitor, appears;
And lives and crimes, with his assessors, hears.
Round in his urn the blended balls he rolls,
Absolves the just, and dooms the guilty souls.
The next, in place and punishment, are they
Who prodigally throw their souls away;
Fools, who, repining at their wretched state,
And loathing anxious life, suborn'd their fate.
With late repentance now they would retrieve
Aeneid |
