| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: board on to which the novelist throws everything. And from
this there results for him a great loss of vividness, but a
great compensating gain in his power over the subject; so
that he can now subordinate one thing to another in
importance, and introduce all manner of very subtle detail,
to a degree that was before impossible. He can render just
as easily the flourish of trumpets before a victorious
emperor and the gossip of country market women, the gradual
decay of forty years of a man's life and the gesture of a
passionate moment. He finds himself equally unable, if he
looks at it from one point of view - equally able, if he
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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 Symposium by Plato: and welcomed by Agathon, whom he has come to crown with a garland. He is
placed on a couch at his side, but suddenly, on recognizing Socrates, he
starts up, and a sort of conflict is carried on between them, which Agathon
is requested to appease. Alcibiades then insists that they shall drink,
and has a large wine-cooler filled, which he first empties himself, and
then fills again and passes on to Socrates. He is informed of the nature
of the entertainment; and is ready to join, if only in the character of a
drunken and disappointed lover he may be allowed to sing the praises of
Socrates:--
He begins by comparing Socrates first to the busts of Silenus, which have
images of the gods inside them; and, secondly, to Marsyas the flute-player.
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