| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: either with his will or against his will; with his will when he gets rid of
a falsehood and learns better, against his will whenever he is deprived of
a truth.
I understand, he said, the willing loss of a resolution; the meaning of the
unwilling I have yet to learn.
Why, I said, do you not see that men are unwillingly deprived of good, and
willingly of evil? Is not to have lost the truth an evil, and to possess
the truth a good? and you would agree that to conceive things as they are
is to possess the truth?
Yes, he replied; I agree with you in thinking that mankind are deprived of
truth against their will.
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Damaged Goods by Upton Sinclair: awakening?" he demanded. "I appeal to those--both men and
women--who have passed through colleges and boarding schools!
Such curiosities cannot be smothered, and they satisfy themselves
as best they can, basely, vilely. I tell you, sir, there is
nothing immoral about the act which perpetuates life by means of
love. But we organize around it, so far as concerns our
children, a gigantic and rigorous conspiracy of silence. The
worthy citizen takes his daughter and his son to popular musical
comedies, where they listen to things which would make a monkey
blush; but it is forbidden to discuss seriously before the young
that act of love which people seem to think they should only know
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