| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: rutted path of soft, warm sand, on which he went almost noiselessly.
A bird squabbled for an instant in a thicket. A great white owl
floated like a flake of moonlight across the track and vanished
without a sound among the trees.
Along the moonlit path went Benham, and when he passed near trees
his footsteps became noisy with the rustle and crash of dead leaves.
The jungle was full of moonlight; twigs, branches, creepers, grass-
clumps came out acutely vivid. The trees and bushes stood in pools
of darkness, and beyond were pale stretches of misty moonshine and
big rocks shining with an unearthly lustre. Things seemed to be
clear and yet uncertain. It was as if they dissolved or retired a
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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: like to have the truth about love, spoken in any words and in any order
which may happen to come into my mind at the time. Will that be agreeable
to you?
Aristodemus said that Phaedrus and the company bid him speak in any manner
which he thought best. Then, he added, let me have your permission first
to ask Agathon a few more questions, in order that I may take his
admissions as the premisses of my discourse.
I grant the permission, said Phaedrus: put your questions. Socrates then
proceeded as follows:--
In the magnificent oration which you have just uttered, I think that you
were right, my dear Agathon, in proposing to speak of the nature of Love
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