| 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: 'playing both sides of the game,' as in the Gorgias and Phaedrus; but it is
not necessary in order to understand him that we should discuss the
fairness of his mode of proceeding. The love of Pausanias for Agathon has
already been touched upon in the Protagoras, and is alluded to by
Aristophanes. Hence he is naturally the upholder of male loves, which,
like all the other affections or actions of men, he regards as varying
according to the manner of their performance. Like the sophists and like
Plato himself, though in a different sense, he begins his discussion by an
appeal to mythology, and distinguishes between the elder and younger love.
The value which he attributes to such loves as motives to virtue and
philosophy is at variance with modern and Christian notions, but is in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde: A steam rose from the horse as it splashed up the puddles.
The sidewindows of the hansom were clogged with a grey-flannel mist.
"To cure the soul by means of the senses, and the senses
by means of the soul!" How the words rang in his ears!
His soul, certainly, was sick to death. Was it true that
the senses could cure it? Innocent blood had been spilled.
What could atone for that? Ah! for that there was no atonement;
but though forgiveness was impossible, forgetfulness was
possible still, and he was determined to forget, to stamp
the thing out, to crush it as one would crush the adder that
had stung one. Indeed, what right had Basil to have spoken
The Picture of Dorian Gray |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: covers.'
'Yes, it is a beautiful - a beautiful story,' said Ronald. 'And
yet somehow it is not the same - is it?'
'I admit it freely,' said I.
The boy stood awhile brooding. 'Well, I take my risk of it,' he
cried. 'I believe it's treason to my sovereign - I believe there
is an infamous punishment for such a crime - and yet I'm hanged if
I can give you up'
I was as much moved as he. 'I could almost beg you to do
otherwise,' I said. 'I was a brute to come to you, a brute and a
coward. You are a noble enemy; you will make a noble soldier.'
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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 Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: saw no other man, nor was much obliged by that regard of which he
could never know the sincerity, and which he might often perceive
to be exerted not so much to delight him as to pain a rival. That
which he gave, and they received, as love, was only a careless
distribution of superfluous time, such love as man can bestow upon
that which he despises, such as has neither hope nor fear, neither
joy nor sorrow."
"You have reason, lady, to think yourself happy," said Imlac, "that
you have been thus easily dismissed. How could a mind, hungry for
knowledge, be willing, in an intellectual famine, to lose such a
banquet as Pekuah's conversation?"
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