| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: attitude of mind which could imagine that falsehood had no existence, if
reality was denied to Not-being: How could such a question arise at all,
much less become of serious importance? The answer to this, and to nearly
all other difficulties of early Greek philosophy, is to be sought for in
the history of ideas, and the answer is only unsatisfactory because our
knowledge is defective. In the passage from the world of sense and
imagination and common language to that of opinion and reflection the human
mind was exposed to many dangers, and often
'Found no end in wandering mazes lost.'
On the other hand, the discovery of abstractions was the great source of
all mental improvement in after ages. It was the pushing aside of the old,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: In short, I am quite capable of reason. Oh! to feel again the terror
of that fascination in which I was held by the schoolmaster, the
plebeian, the man I kept at a distance!
The fact is that love is of two kinds--one which commands, and one
which obeys. The two are quite distinct, and the passion to which the
one gives rise is not the passion of the other. To get her full of
life, perhaps a woman ought to have experience of both. Can the two
passions ever co-exist? Can the man in whom we inspire love inspire it
in us? Will the day ever come when Felipe is my master? Shall I
tremble then, as he does now? These are questions which make me
shudder.
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