| 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: generation is a sort of eternity and immortality,' she replied; 'and if, as
has been already admitted, love is of the everlasting possession of the
good, all men will necessarily desire immortality together with good:
Wherefore love is of immortality.'
All this she taught me at various times when she spoke of love. And I
remember her once saying to me, 'What is the cause, Socrates, of love, and
the attendant desire? See you not how all animals, birds, as well as
beasts, in their desire of procreation, are in agony when they take the
infection of love, which begins with the desire of union; whereto is added
the care of offspring, on whose behalf the weakest are ready to battle
against the strongest even to the uttermost, and to die for them, and will
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from On the Duty of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau: willing to leave it to the majority. Its obligation,
therefore, never exceeds that of expediency. Even voting
for the right is doing nothing for it. It is only
expressing to men feebly your desire that it should prevail.
A wise man will not leave the right to the mercy of chance,
nor wish it to prevail through the power of the majority.
There is but little virtue in the action of masses of men.
When the majority shall at length vote for the abolition of
slavery, it will be because they are indifferent to slavery,
or because there is but little slavery left to be abolished
by their vote. They will then be the only slaves. Only his
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience |
