| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King James Bible: like a green bay tree.
PSA 37:36 Yet he passed away, and, lo, he was not: yea, I sought him,
but he could not be found.
PSA 37:37 Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright: for the end of
that man is peace.
PSA 37:38 But the transgressors shall be destroyed together: the end of
the wicked shall be cut off.
PSA 37:39 But the salvation of the righteous is of the LORD: he is
their strength in the time of trouble.
PSA 37:40 And the LORD shall help them, and deliver them: he shall
deliver them from the wicked, and save them, because they trust in him.
King James Bible |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Ion by Plato: Ion. The rhapsode belongs to the realm of imitation and of opinion: he
professes to have all knowledge, which is derived by him from Homer, just
as the sophist professes to have all wisdom, which is contained in his art
of rhetoric. Even more than the sophist he is incapable of appreciating
the commonest logical distinctions; he cannot explain the nature of his own
art; his great memory contrasts with his inability to follow the steps of
the argument. And in his highest moments of inspiration he has an eye to
his own gains.
The old quarrel between philosophy and poetry, which in the Republic leads
to their final separation, is already working in the mind of Plato, and is
embodied by him in the contrast between Socrates and Ion. Yet here, as in
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