| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: reform struck me as being the more genuine. You may have noticed
that Elmer gives the appearance of being done with worldly
vanities."
"He does seem depressed," said Cleggett, "but I had imputed it
largely to the nature of his present occupation."
"It is due to his attempt to lead a better life--or at least so
he tells me," said Lady Agatha. "Morality does not come easy to
Elmer, he says, and I believe him. Elmer's time is largely taken
up by inward moral debate as to the right or wrong of particular
hypothetical cases which his imagination insists on presenting to
his conscience."
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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 Symposium by Plato: also fair, and she had shown him in return that Love was neither, but in a
mean between fair and foul, good and evil, and not a god at all, but only a
great demon or intermediate power (compare the speech of Eryximachus) who
conveys to the gods the prayers of men, and to men the commands of the
gods.
Socrates asks: Who are his father and mother? To this Diotima replies
that he is the son of Plenty and Poverty, and partakes of the nature of
both, and is full and starved by turns. Like his mother he is poor and
squalid, lying on mats at doors (compare the speech of Pausanias); like his
father he is bold and strong, and full of arts and resources. Further, he
is in a mean between ignorance and knowledge:--in this he resembles the
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