| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: ascertaining, by his own investigation, the real state of Lucy's
feelings.
The other gentlemen left the room, and in a shrot time Lady
Ashton, followed by her daughter, entered the apartment. She
appeared, as he had seen her on former occasions, rather
composed than agitated; but a nicer judge than he could scarce
have determined whether her calmness was that of despair or of
indifference. Bucklaw was too much agitated by his own feelings
minutely to scrutinise those of the lady. He stammered out an
unconnected address, confounding together the two or three topics
to which it related, and stopt short before he brought it to any
 The Bride of Lammermoor |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Poems by T. S. Eliot: What's not believed in, or if still believed,
In memory only, reconsidered passion. Gives too soon
Into weak hands, what's thought can be dispensed with
Till the refusal propagates a fear. Think
Neither fear nor courage saves us. Unnatural vices
Are fathered by our heroism. Virtues
Are forced upon us by our impudent crimes.
These tears are shaken from the wrath-bearing tree.
The tiger springs in the new year. Us he devours. Think at last
We have not reached conclusion, when I
Stiffen in a rented house. Think at last
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