| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: understand that I am looking for the 'simile in multis'? And then he might
put the question in another form: Meno, he might say, what is that 'simile
in multis' which you call figure, and which includes not only round and
straight figures, but all? Could you not answer that question, Meno? I
wish that you would try; the attempt will be good practice with a view to
the answer about virtue.
MENO: I would rather that you should answer, Socrates.
SOCRATES: Shall I indulge you?
MENO: By all means.
SOCRATES: And then you will tell me about virtue?
MENO: I will.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Adieu by Honore de Balzac: unfortunately, by very rich people."
Then, like all persons living in solitude who are afflicted with an
ever present and ever renewed grief, he related to the marquis at
length the following narrative, which is here condensed, and relieved
of the many digressions made by both the narrator and the listener.
CHAPTER II
THE PASSAGE OF THE BERESINA
Marechal Victor, when he started, about nine at night, from the
heights of Studzianka, which he had defended, as the rear-guard of the
retreating army, during the whole day of November 28th, 1812, left a
thousand men behind him, with orders to protect to the last possible
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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 Man in Lower Ten by Mary Roberts Rinehart: run an impersonal finger over that wound and those stains. Odd
how a healthy, normal man holds the medical profession in half
contemptuous regard until he gets sick, or an emergency like this
arises, and then turns meekly to the man who knows the ins and outs
of his mortal tenement, takes his pills or his patronage, ties to
him like a rudderless. ship in a gale.
"Suicide, is it, doctor?" I asked.
He stood erect, after drawing the bed-clothing over the face, and,
taking off his glasses, he wiped them slowly.
"No, it is not suicide," he announced decisively. "It is murder."
Of course, I had expected that, but the word itself brought a shiver.
The Man in Lower Ten |
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 Plutarch's Lives by A. H. Clough: through the night, got safe to Larissa. From Larissa he wrote
to Caesar, who expressed a great deal of joy to hear that he was
safe, and, bidding him come, not only forgave him freely, but
honored and esteemed him among his chiefest friends. Now when
nobody could give any certain account which way Pompey had fled,
Caesar took a little journey alone with Brutus, and tried what
was his opinion herein, and after some discussion which passed
between them, believing that Brutus's conjecture was the right
one, laying aside all other thoughts, he set out directly to
pursue him towards Egypt. But Pompey, having reached Egypt, as
Brutus guessed his design was to do, there met his fate.
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