The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: Still, Parmenides does not deny to Socrates the credit of having gone
beyond them in seeking to apply the paradoxes of Zeno to ideas; and this is
the application which he himself makes of them in the latter part of the
dialogue. He then proceeds to explain to him the sort of mental gymnastic
which he should practise. He should consider not only what would follow
from a given hypothesis, but what would follow from the denial of it, to
that which is the subject of the hypothesis, and to all other things.
There is no trace in the Memorabilia of Xenophon of any such method being
attributed to Socrates; nor is the dialectic here spoken of that 'favourite
method' of proceeding by regular divisions, which is described in the
Phaedrus and Philebus, and of which examples are given in the Politicus and
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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 Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: parents, who aforetime (as we read in Moses) were required to bring
their own children to judgment and sentence them to death. Therefore,
what is here forbidden is forbidden to the individual in his relation
to any one else, and not to the government.
Now this commandment is easy enough and has been often treated,
because we hear it annually in the Gospel of St. Matthew, 5, 21 ff.,
where Christ Himself explains and sums it up, namely, that we must not
kill neither with hand, heart, mouth, signs, gestures, help, nor
counsel. Therefore it is here forbidden to every one to be angry,
except those (as we said) who are in the place of God, that is, parents
and the government. For it is proper for God and for every one who is
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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 The Symposium by Xenophon: proof itself of a true lover's nature.
[17] Lit. "many a foreign visitor likewise."
[18] See the Attic type of character, as drawn by Pericles, Thuc. ii.
40.
Whether indeed Aphrodite be one or twain[19] in personality, the
heavenly and the earthly, I cannot tell, for Zeus, who is one and
indivisible, bears many titles.[20] But this thing I know, that these
twain have separate altars, shrines, and sacrifices,[21] as befits
their nature--she that is earthly, of a lighter and a laxer sort; she
that is heavenly, purer and holier in type. And you may well
conjecture, it is the earthly goddess, the common Aphrodite, who sends
The Symposium |
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 The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table by Oliver Wendell Holmes: my body than a paralytic's senseless and motionless arm or leg is
of his.
The soul of a man has a series of concentric envelopes round it,
like the core of an onion, or the innermost of a nest of boxes.
First, he has his natural garment of flesh and blood. Then, his
artificial integuments, with their true skin of solid stuffs, their
cuticle of lighter tissues, and their variously-tinted pigments.
Thirdly, his domicile, be it a single chamber or a stately mansion.
And then, the whole visible world, in which Time buttons him up as
in a loose outside wrapper.
You shall observe, - the Professor said, - for, like Mr. John
The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table |