The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon: and shape into finer men, since, as he maintained, a dietary which
gave suppleness to the limbs must be more conducive to both ends than
one which added thickness to the bodily parts by feeding.[14]
[9] For the Eiren, see Plut. "Lycurg." (Clough, i. 107).
[10] Reading {sumboleuein} (for the vulg. {sumbouleuein}). The
emendation is now commonly adopted. For the word itself, see L.
Dindorf, n. ad loc., and Schneider. {sumbolon} = {eranos} or club
meal. Perhaps we ought to read {ekhontas} instead of {ekhonta}.
[11] See Plut. "Lycurg." 17 (Clough, i. 108).
[12] Lit. "condiments," such as "meat," "fish," etc. See "Cyrop." I.
ii. 8.
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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: He was like one of those gracious figures in a pageant or a play,
whose joys seem to be remote from one, but whose sorrows stir one's sense
of beauty, and whose wounds are like red roses.
Soul and body, body and soul--how mysterious they were! There was
animalism in the soul, and the body had its moments of spirituality.
The senses could refine, and the intellect could degrade. Who could
say where the fleshly impulse ceased, or the psychical impulse began?
How shallow were the arbitrary definitions of ordinary psychologists!
And yet how difficult to decide between the claims of the various schools!
Was the soul a shadow seated in the house of sin? Or was the body
really in the soul, as Giordano Bruno thought? The separation of spirit
 The Picture of Dorian Gray |