| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: affirming any abstract right of this nature: but he is asserting the duty
and right of the one wise and true man to dissent from the folly and
falsehood of the many. At the same time he acknowledges the natural
result, which he hardly seeks to avert, that he who speaks the truth to a
multitude, regardless of consequences, will probably share the fate of
Socrates.
...
The irony of Plato sometimes veils from us the height of idealism to which
he soars. When declaring truths which the many will not receive, he puts
on an armour which cannot be pierced by them. The weapons of ridicule are
taken out of their hands and the laugh is turned against themselves. The
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: the secret of many a ship's excellence does lie with the man on
board, but it was hopeless for Captain S- to try to make his new
iron clipper equal the feats which made the old Tweed a name of
praise upon the lips of English-speaking seamen. There was
something pathetic in it, as in the endeavour of an artist in his
old age to equal the masterpieces of his youth - for the Tweed's
famous passages were Captain S-'s masterpieces. It was pathetic,
and perhaps just the least bit dangerous. At any rate, I am glad
that, what between Captain S-'s yearning for old triumphs and Mr.
P-'s deafness, I have seen some memorable carrying on to make a
passage. And I have carried on myself upon the tall spars of that
The Mirror of the Sea |
