The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Euthyphro by Plato: intelligible; and my meaning is, that any state of action or passion
implies previous action or passion. It does not become because it is
becoming, but it is in a state of becoming because it becomes; neither does
it suffer because it is in a state of suffering, but it is in a state of
suffering because it suffers. Do you not agree?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: Is not that which is loved in some state either of becoming or
suffering?
EUTHYPHRO: Yes.
SOCRATES: And the same holds as in the previous instances; the state of
being loved follows the act of being loved, and not the act the state.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Amy Foster by Joseph Conrad: with the aureole of an angel of light. The girl
had not been able to sleep for thinking of the poor
man, and in the morning, before the Smiths were
up, she slipped out across the back yard. Holding
the door of the wood-lodge ajar, she looked in and
extended to him half a loaf of white bread--'such
bread as the rich eat in my country,' he used to
say.
"At this he got up slowly from amongst all sorts
of rubbish, stiff, hungry, trembling, miserable, and
doubtful. 'Can you eat this?' she asked in her
Amy Foster |