| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Alcibiades II by Platonic Imitator: discretion?
ALCIBIADES: Yes.
SOCRATES: And that there is no third or middle term between discretion and
indiscretion?
ALCIBIADES: True.
SOCRATES: And there cannot be two opposites to one thing?
ALCIBIADES: There cannot.
SOCRATES: Then madness and want of sense are the same?
ALCIBIADES: That appears to be the case.
SOCRATES: We shall be in the right, therefore, Alcibiades, if we say that
all who are senseless are mad. For example, if among persons of your own
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: was scarce a corner of their loved old London in which she hadn't
in the past, at one time or another, done so; and he found her
always seated by her fire in the deep old-fashioned chair she was
less and less able to leave. He had been struck one day, after an
absence exceeding his usual measure, with her suddenly looking much
older to him than he had ever thought of her being; then he
recognised that the suddenness was all on his side--he had just
simply and suddenly noticed. She looked older because inevitably,
after so many years, she WAS old, or almost; which was of course
true in still greater measure of her companion. If she was old, or
almost, John Marcher assuredly was, and yet it was her showing of
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