| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: and with unimpassioned eye regards his fellow, who is drunken with the
wine of passion.[43]
[43] Lit. "by Aphrodite." Cf. Plat. "Phaedr." 240, "But the lover
. . . when he is drunk" (Jowett); "Symp." 214 C.
Wherefore it is no marvel if, beholding, there springs up in his
breast the bitterest contempt and scorn for such a lover. Search and
you shall find that nothing harsh was ever yet engendered by
attachment based on moral qualities; whilst shameless intercourse,
time out of mind, has been the source of countless hateful and
unhallowed deeds.[44]
[44] Zeune cf. Ael. "V. H." viii. 9, re Archelaus king of Macedon,
 The Symposium |
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: demonstration would have on the eyes."[327]
[327] Quoted by Augustus Clissold: The Prophetic Spirit in
Genius and Madness, 1870, p. 67. Mr. Clissold is a
Swedenborgian. Swedenborg's case is of course the palmary one of
audita et visa, serving as a basis of religious revelation.
If we turn to Islam, we find that Mohammed's revelations all came
from the subconscious sphere. To the question in what way he got
them--
"Mohammed is said to have answered that sometimes he heard a
knell as from a bell, and that this had the strongest effect on
him; and when the angel went away, he had received the
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