| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Charmides by Plato: Republic and Laws, the context is at a greater distance than would be
allowable in a modern writer. But we are not therefore justified in
connecting passages from different parts of his writings, or even from the
same work, which he has not himself joined. We cannot argue from the
Parmenides to the Philebus, or from either to the Sophist, or assume that
the Parmenides, the Philebus, and the Timaeus were 'written
simultaneously,' or 'were intended to be studied in the order in which they
are here named (J. of Philol.) We have no right to connect statements
which are only accidentally similar. Nor is it safe for the author of a
theory about ancient philosophy to argue from what will happen if his
statements are rejected. For those consequences may never have entered
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke: At the same time there was something self-pleased and
congratulatory in
the way in which the mansion held its own amid the changing
neighborhood.
It almost seemed to be lifted up a little, among the tall
buildings
near at hand, as if it felt the rising value of the land on which
it stood.
John Weightman was like the house into which he had built himself
thirty years ago, and in which his ideals and ambitions were
incrusted.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: those principles which had been already justified by the
success of the Eddystone, and to perfect the model by more
than one exemplary departure. Smeaton had adopted in his
floors the principle of the arch; each therefore exercised an
outward thrust upon the walls, which must be met and combated
by embedded chains. My grandfather's flooring-stones, on the
other hand, were flat, made part of the outer wall, and were
keyed and dovetailed into a central stone, so as to bind the
work together and be positive elements of strength. In 1703
Winstanley still thought it possible to erect his strange
pagoda, with its open gallery, its florid scrolls and
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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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: is a feeling which separates me from this age, and links me with
that to which I am hastening; and even when it seems, as now, to
lead me to the brink of the grave, and bid me gaze on it, I do
not love that it should be dispelled. It soothes my imagination,
without influencing my reason or conduct."
"I profess, my good lady," replied I, "that had any one but you
made such a declaration, I should have thought it as capricious
as that of the clergyman, who, without vindicating his false
reading, preferred, from habit's sake, his old Mumpsimus to the
modern Sumpsimus."
"Well," answered my aunt, "I must explain my inconsistency in
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