| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tanach: 1_Kings 2: 37 For on the day thou goest out, and passest over the brook Kidron, know thou for certain that thou shalt surely die; thy blood shall be upon thine own head.'
1_Kings 2: 38 And Shimei said unto the king: 'The saying is good; as my lord the king hath said, so will thy servant do.' And Shimei dwelt in Jerusalem many days.
1_Kings 2: 39 And it came to pass at the end of three years, that two of the servants of Shimei ran away unto Achish, son of Maacah, king of Gath. And they told Shimei, saying: 'Behold, thy servants are in Gath.'
1_Kings 2: 40 And Shimei arose, and saddled his ass, and went to Gath to Achish, to seek his servants; and Shimei went, and brought his servants from Gath.
1_Kings 2: 41 And it was told Solomon that Shimei had gone from Jerusalem to Gath, and was come back.
1_Kings 2: 42 And the king sent and called for Shimei, and said unto him: 'Did I not make thee to swear by the LORD, and forewarned thee, saying: Know for certain, that on the day thou goest out, and walkest abroad any whither, thou shalt surely die? and thou saidst unto me: The saying is good; I have heard it.
1_Kings 2: 43 Why then hast thou not kept the oath of the LORD, and the commandment that I have charged thee with?'
1_Kings 2: 44 The king said moreover to Shimei: 'Thou knowest all the wickedness which thy heart is privy to, that thou didst to David my father; therefore the LORD shall return thy wickedness upon thine own head.
 The Tanach |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: most corrupt cities individuals are to be found beyond all praise). (2) It
may be observed that evils which admit of degrees can seldom be rightly
estimated, because under the same name actions of the most different
degrees of culpability may be included. No charge is more easily set going
than the imputation of secret wickedness (which cannot be either proved or
disproved and often cannot be defined) when directed against a person of
whom the world, or a section of it, is predisposed to think evil. And it
is quite possible that the malignity of Greek scandal, aroused by some
personal jealousy or party enmity, may have converted the innocent
friendship of a great man for a noble youth into a connexion of another
kind. Such accusations were brought against several of the leading men of
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