| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lysis by Plato: not right?
Yes, certainly.
And may not the same be said of the friend? That which is only dear to us
for the sake of something else is improperly said to be dear, but the truly
dear is that in which all these so-called dear friendships terminate.
That, he said, appears to be true.
And the truly dear or ultimate principle of friendship is not for the sake
of any other or further dear.
True.
Then we have done with the notion that friendship has any further object.
May we then infer that the good is the friend?
Lysis |
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 Early Short Fiction of Edith Wharton by Edith Wharton: Denver's house a friendly beam fell on the pavement; and as
Granice sprang from his cab the editor's electric turned the
corner.
The two men grasped hands, and Denver, feeling for his latch-key,
ushered Granice into the brightly-lit hall.
"Disturb me? Not a bit. You might have, at ten to-morrow
morning . . . but this is my liveliest hour . . . you know my
habits of old."
Granice had known Robert Denver for fifteen years--watched his
rise through all the stages of journalism to the Olympian
pinnacle of the Investigator's editorial office. In the thick-
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