| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: inconsiderate I admit, which I committed, but which the
gravity of the case may excuse, I am circumspect and
reserved."
"Oh!" said Monk, "believe me, I know you well, Monsieur
d'Artagnan, and I appreciate you."
D'Artagnan never took his eyes off Monk; studying all which
passed in the mind of the general, as he prosecuted his
idea. "But it does not concern me," resumed he.
"Well, then, whom does it concern?" said Monk, who began to
grow a little impatient.
"It relates to the king, who will never restrain his
 Ten Years Later |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: interpreted without regard to their poetical environment. It is due also
to the misunderstanding of him by the Aristotelian school; and the
erroneous notion has been further narrowed and has become fixed by the
realism of the schoolmen. This popular view of the Platonic ideas may be
summed up in some such formula as the following: 'Truth consists not in
particulars, but in universals, which have a place in the mind of God, or
in some far-off heaven. These were revealed to men in a former state of
existence, and are recovered by reminiscence (anamnesis) or association
from sensible things. The sensible things are not realities, but shadows
only, in relation to the truth.' These unmeaning propositions are hardly
suspected to be a caricature of a great theory of knowledge, which Plato in
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