| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: are better than those who have. Like a novice in the art of disputation,
he is delighted with the hits of Socrates; and is disposed to be angry with
the refinements of Nicias.
In the discussion of the main thesis of the Dialogue--'What is Courage?'
the antagonism of the two characters is still more clearly brought out; and
in this, as in the preliminary question, the truth is parted between them.
Gradually, and not without difficulty, Laches is made to pass on from the
more popular to the more philosophical; it has never occurred to him that
there was any other courage than that of the soldier; and only by an effort
of the mind can he frame a general notion at all. No sooner has this
general notion been formed than it evanesces before the dialectic of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Wrong Box by Stevenson & Osbourne: no other resources than his memory supplied, is a circumstance
highly pathetic in itself, and but little creditable to the
wisdom of his nephews.
The design, or at least the temptation, was already some months
old; and when a bill for eight hundred pounds, payable to
himself, was suddenly placed in Joseph's hand, it brought matters
to an issue. He retained that bill, which, to one of his
frugality, meant wealth; and he promised himself to disappear
among the crowds at Waterloo, or (if that should prove
impossible) to slink out of the house in the course of the
evening and melt like a dream into the millions of London. By a
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