The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Symposium by Xenophon: {muthon te reter' emenai, prektera te ergon}
Therefore sent he (Peleus) me to thee to teach thee all things,
To be both a speaker of words and a doer of deeds (W. Leaf).
[46] See "Il." xi. 831; "Hunting," ch. i., as to Cheiron and his
scholars, the last of whom is Achilles.
[47] {an periepoito}. "He will be scurvily treated." Cf. "Hell." III.
i. 19.
[48] Cf. "Mem." I. ii. 29.
If my language has a touch of turbulence,[49] do not marvel: partly
the wine exalts me; partly that love which ever dwells within my heart
of hearts now pricks me forward to use great boldness of speech[50]
The Symposium |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tales and Fantasies by Robert Louis Stevenson: John should have admired it? what were these clock-work
virtues, from which love was absent? Kindness was the test,
kindness the aim and soul; and judged by such a standard, the
discarded prodigal - now rapidly drowning his sorrows and his
reason in successive drams - was a creature of a lovelier
morality than his self-righteous father. Yes, he was the
better man; he felt it, glowed with the consciousness, and
entering a public-house at the corner of Howard Place
(whither he had somehow wandered) he pledged his own virtues
in a glass - perhaps the fourth since his dismissal. Of that
he knew nothing, keeping no account of what he did or where
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