| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: speech charming, and did I not know that Agathon and Socrates are masters
in the art of love, I should be really afraid that they would have nothing
to say, after the world of things which have been said already. But, for
all that, I am not without hopes.
Socrates said: You played your part well, Eryximachus; but if you were as
I am now, or rather as I shall be when Agathon has spoken, you would,
indeed, be in a great strait.
You want to cast a spell over me, Socrates, said Agathon, in the hope that
I may be disconcerted at the expectation raised among the audience that I
shall speak well.
I should be strangely forgetful, Agathon replied Socrates, of the courage
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville: people, it is made to participate most fully in the
preponderating authority of the multitude, and it is naturally
led to monopolize every species of influence. This concentration
is at once prejudicial to a well-conducted administration, and
favorable to the despotism of the majority. The legislators of
the States frequently yielded to these democratic propensities,
which were invariably and courageously resisted by the founders
of the Union.
In the States the executive power is vested in the hands of
a magistrate, who is apparently placed upon a level with the
Legislature, but who is in reality nothing more than the blind
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