| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Aeroplanes and Dirigibles of War by Frederick A. Talbot: It is for this reason that the defensive measures which are
practised in the waters of the earth are inapplicable to the
atmosphere. Movement by, or in, water is governed by the depth
of channels, and these may be rendered impassable or dangerous to
negotiate by the planting of mines. A passing ship or submarine
may circumvent these explosive obstructions, but such a
successful manoeuvre is generally a matter of good luck. So far
as submarines are concerned the fact must not be over looked that
movements in the sea are carried out under blind conditions: the
navigator is unable to see where he is going; the optic faculty
is rendered nugatory. Contrast the disability of the submarine
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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 Varieties of Religious Experience by William James: viii. A. Seth [Pringle-Pattison]: Hegelianism and Personality,
Ibid., 1890, passim.
The most persuasive arguments in favor of a concrete individual
Soul of the world, with which I am acquainted, are those of my
colleague, Josiah Royce, in his Religious Aspect of Philosophy,
Boston, 1885; in his Conception of God, New York and London,
1897; and lately in his Aberdeen Gifford Lectures, The World and
the Individual, 2 vols., New York and London, 1901-02. I
doubtless seem to some of my readers to evade the philosophic
duty which my thesis in this lecture imposes on me, by not even
attempting to meet Professor Royce's arguments articulately. I
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