| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: recourse to any of your costly viands, as, for instance, now, when I
have chanced on this fine Thasian wine,[64] and sip it without thirst.
But indeed, the man who makes frugality, not wealth of worldly goods,
his aim, is on the face of it a much more upright person. And why?--
the man who is content with what he has will least of all be prone to
clutch at what is his neighbour's.
[63] Or, "turn to the storehouse of a healthy appetite." See "Apol."
18, the same sentiment "ex ore Socratis."
[64] See Athen. "Deipnos." i. 28.
And here's a point worth noting. Wealth of my sort will make you
liberal of soul. Look at Socrates; from him it was I got these riches.
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maitre Cornelius by Honore de Balzac: The old miser had his two valets and the secretary put in prison. The
young man was feeble and he died under the sufferings of the
"question" protesting his innocence. The valets confessed the crime to
escape torture; but when the judge required them to say where the
stolen property could be found, they kept silence, were again put to
the torture, judged, condemned, and hanged. On their way to the
scaffold they declared themselves innocent, according to the custom
of all persons about to be executed.
The city of Tours talked much of this singular affair; but the
criminals were Flemish, and the interest felt in their unhappy fate
soon evaporated. In those days wars and seditions furnished endless
|
