| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lord Arthur Savile's Crime, etc. by Oscar Wilde: Really, Sybil has done you a great deal of good. And now you must
run away, for I am dining with some very dull people, who won't
talk scandal, and I know that if I don't get my sleep now I shall
never be able to keep awake during dinner. Good-bye, Arthur, give
my love to Sybil, and thank you so much for the American medicine.'
'You won't forget to take it, Lady Clem, will you?' said Lord
Arthur, rising from his seat.
'Of course I won't, you silly boy. I think it is most kind of you
to think of me, and I shall write and tell you if I want any more.'
Lord Arthur left the house in high spirits, and with a feeling of
immense relief.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Menexenus by Plato: infer that he was unacquainted with a second dialogue bearing the same
name. Moreover, the mere existence of a Greater and Lesser Hippias, and of
a First and Second Alcibiades, does to a certain extent throw a doubt upon
both of them. Though a very clever and ingenious work, the Lesser Hippias
does not appear to contain anything beyond the power of an imitator, who
was also a careful student of the earlier Platonic writings, to invent.
The motive or leading thought of the dialogue may be detected in Xen. Mem.,
and there is no similar instance of a 'motive' which is taken from Xenophon
in an undoubted dialogue of Plato. On the other hand, the upholders of the
genuineness of the dialogue will find in the Hippias a true Socratic
spirit; they will compare the Ion as being akin both in subject and
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