| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: immortal as to be serious. Nor will any one invite me in hopes of
reclining at my board in his turn. Everyone knows so serious a thing
as dinner in my house was never heard of; it's against the rules--the
more's the pity.
[30] Cf. "Cyrop." VI. i. 3; Plat. "Laws," 677 C.
[31] Lit. "by the laughter which I stirred in them."
And as he spoke he blew his nose and snuffled, uttering the while so
truly dolorous a moan[32] that everybody fell to soothing him. "They
would all laugh again another day," they said, and so implored him to
have done and eat his dinner; till Critobulus could not stand his
lamentation longer, but broke into a peal of laughter. The welcome
The Symposium |
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 Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: on the subject, and to give a fair and unbiassed hearing to his own
theory. The problem he pointed out was this: Who was that young
man of Shakespeare's day who, without being of noble birth or even
of noble nature, was addressed by him in terms of such passionate
adoration that we can but wonder at the strange worship, and are
almost afraid to turn the key that unlocks the mystery of the
poet's heart? Who was he whose physical beauty was such that it
became the very corner-stone of Shakespeare's art; the very source
of Shakespeare's inspiration; the very incarnation of Shakespeare's
dreams? To look upon him as simply the object of certain love-
poems is to miss the whole meaning of the poems: for the art of
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