| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: was not mitigated in later life; although both in the Statesman and Laws he
admits of a higher use of rhetoric.
Reasons have been already given for assigning a late date to the Philebus.
That the date is probably later than that of the Republic, may be further
argued on the following grounds:--1. The general resemblance to the later
dialogues and to the Laws: 2. The more complete account of the nature of
good and pleasure: 3. The distinction between perception, memory,
recollection, and opinion which indicates a great progress in psychology;
also between understanding and imagination, which is described under the
figure of the scribe and the painter. A superficial notion may arise that
Plato probably wrote shorter dialogues, such as the Philebus, the Sophist,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain: other folks he ain't acquainted with, on t'other side of
the world, that way. Well, up in a balloon there ain't
any of that, and it's the darlingest place there is.
We had supper, and that night was one of the
prettiest nights I ever see. The moon made it just
like daylight, only a heap softer; and once we see a
lion standing all alone by himself, just all alone on the
earth, it seemed like, and his shadder laid on the sand
by him like a puddle of ink. That's the kind of moon-
light to have.
Mainly we laid on our backs and talked; we didn't
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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 Poems by T. S. Eliot: Of Belle Isle, or running on the Horn,
White feathers in the snow, the Gulf claims,
And an old man driven by the Trades
To a sleepy corner.
Tenants of the house,
Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season.
Burbank with a Baedeker: Bleistein with a Cigar
Tra-la-la-la-la-la-laire--nil nisi divinum stabile
est; caetera fumus--the gondola stopped, the old
palace was there, how charming its grey and pink--
goats and monkeys, with such hair too!--so the
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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 Gobseck by Honore de Balzac: was how I came to see Gobseck in this light, monsieur. I know nothing
of his past life. He may have been a pirate, may, for anything I know,
have been all over the world, trafficking in diamonds, or men, or
women, or State secrets; but this I affirm of him--never has human
soul been more thoroughly tempered and tried. When I paid off my loan,
I asked him, with a little circumlocution of course, how it was that
he had made me pay such an exorbitant rate of interest; and why,
seeing that I was a friend, and he meant to do me a kindness, he
should not have yielded to the wish and made it complete.--"My son,"
he said, "I released you from all need to feel any gratitude by giving
you ground for the belief that you owed me nothing."--So we are the
Gobseck |
