| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sophist by Plato: to other numbers without any increase or diminution (Theat.). But the
perplexity only arises out of the confusion of the human faculties; the art
of measuring shows us what is truly great and truly small. Though the just
and good in particular instances may vary, the IDEA of good is eternal and
unchangeable. And the IDEA of good is the source of knowledge and also of
Being, in which all the stages of sense and knowledge are gathered up and
from being hypotheses become realities.
Leaving the comparison with Plato we may now consider the value of this
invention of Hegel. There can be no question of the importance of showing
that two contraries or contradictories may in certain cases be both true.
The silliness of the so-called laws of thought ('All A = A,' or, in the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: then, to sober and chastise wild spirits, there is nothing like the
terror of your men-at-arms.[1] And as to gentler natures,[2] I do not
know by what means you could bestow so many benefits upon them as by
means of mercenaries.
[1] Lit. "spear-bearers"; the title given to the body-guard of kings
and tyrants.
[2] Lit. "the beautiful and good," the {kalois kagathois}. See "Econ."
vi. 11 foll.
Let me explain: You keep them, I presume, in the first instance, for
yourself, as guards of your own person. But for masters, owners of
estates and others, to be done to death with violence by their own
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