| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Boys' Life of Abraham Lincoln by Helen Nicolay: Constitution! He could do both. As a laughing peacemaker between
two quarrelsome patriots he had no equal; and as contestant in an
impromptu match at quoit-throwing, or lifting heavy weights, his
native tact and strong arm served him equally well. Candidates
also visited farms and outlying settlements, where they were
sometimes unexpectedly called upon to show their mettle and
muscle in more useful labor. One farmer has recorded how Lincoln
"came to my house near Island Grove during harvest. There were
some thirty men in the field. He got his dinner, and went out in
the field where the men were at work. I gave him an introduction,
and the boys said that they could not vote for a man unless he
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Apology by Plato: depart; and therefore he forgives his judges because they have done him no
harm, although they never meant to do him any good.
He has a last request to make to them--that they will trouble his sons as
he has troubled them, if they appear to prefer riches to virtue, or to
think themselves something when they are nothing.
...
'Few persons will be found to wish that Socrates should have defended
himself otherwise,'--if, as we must add, his defence was that with which
Plato has provided him. But leaving this question, which does not admit of
a precise solution, we may go on to ask what was the impression which Plato
in the Apology intended to give of the character and conduct of his master
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