| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: land, are goods?
He assented.
And what other goods are there? I said. What do you say of temperance,
justice, courage: do you not verily and indeed think, Cleinias, that we
shall be more right in ranking them as goods than in not ranking them as
goods? For a dispute might possibly arise about this. What then do you
say?
They are goods, said Cleinias.
Very well, I said; and where in the company shall we find a place for
wisdom--among the goods or not?
Among the goods.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tao Teh King by Lao-tze: look at, he quietly remains (in his proper place), indifferent to
them. How should the lord of a myriad chariots carry himself lightly
before the kingdom? If he do act lightly, he has lost his root (of
gravity); if he proceed to active movement, he will lose his throne.
27. 1. The skilful traveller leaves no traces of his wheels or
footsteps; the skilful speaker says nothing that can be found fault
with or blamed; the skilful reckoner uses no tallies; the skilful
closer needs no bolts or bars, while to open what he has shut will be
impossible; the skilful binder uses no strings or knots, while to
unloose what he has bound will be impossible. In the same way the
sage is always skilful at saving men, and so he does not cast away any
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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 Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: anything. The past slid from him so easily, he forgot even to
try to forget. He liked to quote from Emerson, "What have I to
do with repentance?" "What have my yesterday's errors," he
would say, "to do with the life of to-day?"
"Everything," interrupted Aunt Jane, "for you will repeat them
to-day, if you can."
"Not at all," persisted he, accepting as conversation what she
meant as a stab. "I may, indeed, commit greater errors,"--here
she grimly nodded, as if she had no doubt of it,--"but never
just the same. To-day must take thought for itself."
"I wish it would," she said, gently, and then went on with her
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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 Euthydemus by Plato: Here Ctesippus was silent; and I in my astonishment said: What do you
mean, Dionysodorus? I have often heard, and have been amazed to hear, this
thesis of yours, which is maintained and employed by the disciples of
Protagoras, and others before them, and which to me appears to be quite
wonderful, and suicidal as well as destructive, and I think that I am most
likely to hear the truth about it from you. The dictum is that there is no
such thing as falsehood; a man must either say what is true or say nothing.
Is not that your position?
He assented.
But if he cannot speak falsely, may he not think falsely?
No, he cannot, he said.
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