| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: LORD WINDERMERE. I wish that at the same time she would give you a
miniature she kisses every night before she prays - It's the
miniature of a young innocent-looking girl with beautiful DARK
hair.
MRS. ERLYNNE. Ah, yes, I remember. How long ago that seems!
[Goes to sofa and sits down.] It was done before I was married.
Dark hair and an innocent expression were the fashion then,
Windermere! [A pause.]
LORD WINDERMERE. What do you mean by coming here this morning?
What is your object? [Crossing L.C. and sitting.]
MRS. ERLYNNE. [With a note of irony in her voice.] To bid good-
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: conception of the good. We may then proceed to examine (VI) the relation
of the Philebus to the Republic, and to other dialogues.
I. The paradox of the one and many originated in the restless dialectic of
Zeno, who sought to prove the absolute existence of the one by showing the
contradictions that are involved in admitting the existence of the many
(compare Parm.). Zeno illustrated the contradiction by well-known examples
taken from outward objects. But Socrates seems to intimate that the time
had arrived for discarding these hackneyed illustrations; such difficulties
had long been solved by common sense ('solvitur ambulando'); the fact of
the co-existence of opposites was a sufficient answer to them. He will
leave them to Cynics and Eristics; the youth of Athens may discourse of
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