| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: and I shall take both parts myself as well as I can (compare Gorgias). As
you, Agathon, suggested (supra), I must speak first of the being and nature
of Love, and then of his works. First I said to her in nearly the same
words which he used to me, that Love was a mighty god, and likewise fair;
and she proved to me as I proved to him that, by my own showing, Love was
neither fair nor good. 'What do you mean, Diotima,' I said, 'is love then
evil and foul?' 'Hush,' she cried; 'must that be foul which is not fair?'
'Certainly,' I said. 'And is that which is not wise, ignorant? do you not
see that there is a mean between wisdom and ignorance?' 'And what may that
be?' I said. 'Right opinion,' she replied; 'which, as you know, being
incapable of giving a reason, is not knowledge (for how can knowledge be
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Prince of Bohemia by Honore de Balzac: Youth responded to his demands upon it. Young men were for Napoleon
the /missi hominici/ of Charlemagne.'
"The word Bohemia tells you everything. Bohemia has nothing and lives
upon what it has. Hope is its religion; faith (in oneself) its creed;
and charity is supposed to be its budget. All these young men are
greater than their misfortune; they are under the feet of Fortune, yet
more than equal to Fate. Always ready to mount and ride an /if/, witty
as a /feuilleton/, blithe as only those can be that are deep in debt
and drink deep to match, and finally--for here I come to my point--hot
lovers and what lovers! Picture to yourself Lovelace, and Henri
Quatre, and the Regent, and Werther, and Saint-Preux, and Rene, and
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Unconscious Comedians by Honore de Balzac: "Did she tell you about your future?" asked Leon.
"No; I had enough of her about my past. But," added Gazonal, struck by
a sudden thought, "if she can, by the help of those dreadful
collaborators, predict the future, how came she to lose in the
lottery?"
"Ah! you put your finger on one of the greatest mysteries of occult
science," replied Leon. "The moment that the species of inward mirror
on which the past or the future is reflected to their minds become
clouded by the breath of a personal feeling, by an idea foreign to the
purpose of the power they are exerting, sorcerers and sorceresses can
see nothing; just as an artist who blurs art with political
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The fourth excerpt represents the element of Earth. It speaks of physical influences and the impact of the unseen on the visible world, and is drawn from Heart of the West by O. Henry: proof of the /caballero's/ deeds of infamy, they said maybe he had
been driven to it, and that he knew how to treat a lady, anyhow.
Considering this extremely courteous idiosyncrasy of the Kid and the
pride he took in it, one can perceive that the solution of the problem
that was presented to him by what he saw and heard from his hiding-
place in the pear that afternoon (at least as to one of the actors)
must have been obscured by difficulties. And yet one could not think
of the Kid overlooking little matters of that kind.
At the end of the short twilight they gathered around a supper of
/frijoles/, goat steaks, canned peaches, and coffee, by the light of a
lantern in the /jacal/. Afterward, the ancestor, his flock corralled,
Heart of the West |
