| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: human soul which is satisfied in the vulgar by the procreation of children,
may become the highest aspiration of intellectual desire. As the Christian
might speak of hungering and thirsting after righteousness; or of divine
loves under the figure of human (compare Eph. 'This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the church'); as the mediaeval saint might
speak of the 'fruitio Dei;' as Dante saw all things contained in his love
of Beatrice, so Plato would have us absorb all other loves and desires in
the love of knowledge. Here is the beginning of Neoplatonism, or rather,
perhaps, a proof (of which there are many) that the so-called mysticism of
the East was not strange to the Greek of the fifth century before Christ.
The first tumult of the affections was not wholly subdued; there were
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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 Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: Little John was the best of all, for three times he struck the clout, and once
only the length of a barleycorn from the center. "Hey for the tall archer!"
shouted the crowd, and some among them shouted, "Hey for Reynold Greenleaf!"
for this was the name that Little John had called himself that day.
Then the Sheriff stepped down from the raised seat and came to where
the archers stood, while all doffed their caps that saw him coming.
He looked keenly at Little John but did not know him, though he said,
after a while, "How now, good fellow, methinks there is that about thy
face that I have seen erewhile."
"Mayhap it may be so," quoth Little John, "for often have I seen
Your Worship." And, as he spoke, he looked steadily into the Sheriff's
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
