| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Phaedrus by Plato: not to memory, but to reminiscence, and you give your disciples not truth,
but only the semblance of truth; they will be hearers of many things and
will have learned nothing; they will appear to be omniscient and will
generally know nothing; they will be tiresome company, having the show of
wisdom without the reality.
PHAEDRUS: Yes, Socrates, you can easily invent tales of Egypt, or of any
other country.
SOCRATES: There was a tradition in the temple of Dodona that oaks first
gave prophetic utterances. The men of old, unlike in their simplicity to
young philosophy, deemed that if they heard the truth even from 'oak or
rock,' it was enough for them; whereas you seem to consider not whether a
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Case of the Registered Letter by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: money had presumably been in his room at the time of his death.
A search had been made for this money in every possible place of
concealment among the dead man's belongings, and it had not been
found. Muller asked the Police Commissioner to give him the key
to the rooms, which were still officially closed, and also the
keys to the dead man's pieces of baggage. Commissioner Lange
seemed to think all this extra search quite unnecessary, as it
did not occur to him that anything else was to be looked for
except the money.
It was quite late when Muller began his examination of the dead
man's effects. He was struck by the fact that there was scarcely
|