| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lesser Hippias by Plato: Alcibiades. Of these, the Lesser Hippias and the Funeral Oration are cited
by Aristotle; the first in the Metaphysics, the latter in the Rhetoric.
Neither of them are expressly attributed to Plato, but in his citation of
both of them he seems to be referring to passages in the extant dialogues.
From the mention of 'Hippias' in the singular by Aristotle, we may perhaps
infer that he was unacquainted with a second dialogue bearing the same
name. Moreover, the mere existence of a Greater and Lesser Hippias, and of
a First and Second Alcibiades, does to a certain extent throw a doubt upon
both of them. Though a very clever and ingenious work, the Lesser Hippias
does not appear to contain anything beyond the power of an imitator, who
was also a careful student of the earlier Platonic writings, to invent.
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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 The People That Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs: apprehensions concerning prowling beasts, I was startled into
tense silence by a distinct and unmistakable sound coming from
the dark corridor farther toward the heart of the cliff--the
sound of padded feet moving stealthily in my direction.
I believe that never before in all my life, even amidst the
terrors of childhood nights, have I suffered such a sensation
of extreme horror as I did that moment in which I realized that
I must lie bound and helpless while some horrid beast of prey
crept upon me to devour me in that utter darkness of the Bandlu
pits of Caspak. I reeked with cold sweat, and my flesh
crawled--I could feel it crawl. If ever I came nearer to
The People That Time Forgot |
