| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Republic by Plato: Then oligarchy, or the form of government in which the rulers are elected
for their wealth, may now be dismissed. Let us next proceed to consider
the nature and origin of the individual who answers to this State.
By all means.
Does not the timocratical man change into the oligarchical on this wise?
How?
A time arrives when the representative of timocracy has a son: at first he
begins by emulating his father and walking in his footsteps, but presently
he sees him of a sudden foundering against the State as upon a sunken reef,
and he and all that he has is lost; he may have been a general or some
other high officer who is brought to trial under a prejudice raised by
The Republic |
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 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: he is liable to become a bankrupt himself.
The upshot of all this is, that in point of fact the debtor appoints
his assignees, audits his own accounts, and draws up the certificate
of bankruptcy himself.
Given these premises, it is easy to imagine the devices of Frontin,
the trickeries of Sganarelle, the lies of Mascarille, and the empty
bags of Scapin which such a system develops. There has never been a
failure which did not generate enough matter to fill the fourteen
volumes of "Clarissa Harlowe," if an author could be found to describe
them. A single example will suffice. The illustrious Gobseck,--ruler
of Palma, Gigonnet, Werbrust, Keller, Nucingen, and the like,--being
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
