| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Euthydemus by Plato: They heard me say this, but only despised me. I observed that they looked
at one another, and both of them laughed; and then Euthydemus said: Those,
Socrates, are matters which we no longer pursue seriously; to us they are
secondary occupations.
Indeed, I said, if such occupations are regarded by you as secondary, what
must the principal one be; tell me, I beseech you, what that noble study
is?
The teaching of virtue, Socrates, he replied, is our principal occupation;
and we believe that we can impart it better and quicker than any man.
My God! I said, and where did you learn that? I always thought, as I was
saying just now, that your chief accomplishment was the art of fighting in
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Off on a Comet by Jules Verne: and the probability was great that it was approximating to the orbit of Mars,
that planet which in its physical constitution most nearly resembles
our own. Nor was this supposition suggested merely by the lowering
of the temperature; it was strongly corroborated by the reduction
of the apparent diameter of the sun's disc to the precise dimensions
which it would assume to an observer actually stationed on the surface
of Mars. The necessary inference that seemed to follow from these
phenomena was that the earth had been projected into a new orbit,
which had the form of a very elongated ellipse.
Very slight, however, in comparison was the regard which these astronomical
wonders attracted on board the _Dobryna_. All interest there was too much
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