| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: he will like to personate him, and will not be ashamed of this sort of
imitation: he will be most ready to play the part of the good man when he
is acting firmly and wisely; in a less degree when he is overtaken by
illness or love or drink, or has met with any other disaster. But when he
comes to a character which is unworthy of him, he will not make a study of
that; he will disdain such a person, and will assume his likeness, if at
all, for a moment only when he is performing some good action; at other
times he will be ashamed to play a part which he has never practised, nor
will he like to fashion and frame himself after the baser models; he feels
the employment of such an art, unless in jest, to be beneath him, and his
mind revolts at it.
The Republic |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: You think that you have but to come here and say, 'Monsieur my
godfather!' and everything is to be forgiven and forgotten. That
is your error. You have committed too great a wrong; you have
offended against everything by which I hold, and against myself
personally, by your betrayal of my trust in you. You are one of
those unspeakable scoundrels who are responsible for this revolution."
"Alas, monsieur, I see that you share the common delusion. These
unspeakable scoundrels but demanded a constitution, as was promised
them from the throne. They were not to know that the promise was
insincere, or that its fulfilment would be baulked by the privileged
orders. The men who have precipitated this revolution, monsieur,
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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 Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: powers; they are alternately made the playthings of their ruler,
and his masters - more than kings, and less than men. After
having exhausted all the different modes of election, without
finding one to suit their purpose, they are still amazed, and
still bent on seeking further; as if the evil they remark did not
originate in the constitution of the country far more than in
that of the electoral body. It is, indeed, difficult to conceive
how men who have entirely given up the habit of self-government
should succeed in making a proper choice of those by whom they
are to be governed; and no one will ever believe that a liberal,
wise, and energetic government can spring from the suffrages of a
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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 Phaedrus by Plato: Phaedrus undertakes to carry to Lysias from the local deities, and Socrates
himself will carry a similar message to his favourite Isocrates, whose
future distinction as a great rhetorician he prophesies. The heat of the
day has passed, and after offering up a prayer to Pan and the nymphs,
Socrates and Phaedrus depart.
There are two principal controversies which have been raised about the
Phaedrus; the first relates to the subject, the second to the date of the
Dialogue.
There seems to be a notion that the work of a great artist like Plato
cannot fail in unity, and that the unity of a dialogue requires a single
subject. But the conception of unity really applies in very different
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