| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: "pleaded the case of" (Jowett).
[41] Or, "laid the greatest stress of not being guilty of impiety";
"attached the greatest importance to the fact that he was never
guilty of impiety."
[42] {upotimasthai}. See L. Dind. cf. Cic. "Orat." i. 54; the
technical word is {antitimasthai}. Cf. Plat. "Apol." 36 D; Diog.
Laert. ii. 41. These authorities tell a different story. Why
should these stories, if true, as no doubt they were, be omitted?
[43] Cf. Plat. "Crit." 44 B.
When the trial drew to an end, we are told, the master said:[44]
"Sirs, those who instructed the witnesses that they ought to perjure
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from La Grenadiere by Honore de Balzac: see his brother standing there in the gateway of the school.
A month later Louis-Gaston, now an apprentice on board a man-of-war,
left the harbor of Rochefort. Leaning over the bulwarks of the
corvette Iris, he watched the coast of France receding swiftly till it
became indistinguishable from the faint blue horizon line. In a little
while he felt that he was really alone, and lost in the wide ocean,
lost and alone in the world and in life.
"There is no need to cry, lad; there is a God for us all," said an old
sailor, with rough kindliness in his thick voice.
The boy thanked him with pride in his eyes. Then he bowed his head,
and resigned himself to a sailor's life. He was a father.
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