| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: be married soon; he loved and admired her heartily, and had an
indifference to her want of fortune that was quite amazing,
when we consider that he had a fortune of his own.
III.
A DRIVE ON THE AVENUE.
OLDPORT AVENUE is a place where a great many carriages may be
seen driving so slowly that they might almost be photographed
without halting, and where their occupants already wear the
dismal expression which befits that process. In these fine
vehicles, following each other in an endless file, one sees
such faces as used to be exhibited in ball-rooms during 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 The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: shut the door, and sat down again with his little book. This is
what he read:
"Wednesday - is it Wednesday? They brought me a newspaper to-day
which had the date of Wednesday, the 20th of November. The ink
still smells fresh, but it is so damp here, the paper may have
been older. I do not know surely on what day it is that I begin
to write this narrative. I do not know either whether I may not
have been ill for days and weeks; I do not know what may have been
the matter with me - I know only that I was unconscious, and that
when I came to myself again, I was here in this gloomy room. Did
any physician see me? I have seen no one until to-day except the
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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 A Journal of the Plague Year by Daniel Defoe: mortal marks were upon them. But everybody must allow that they
were infected in a high degree before, And must have been so some
time, and consequently their breath, their sweat, their very clothes,
were contagious for many days before.
This occasioned a vast variety of cases which physicians would have
much more opportunity to remember than I; but some came within
the compass of my observation or hearing, of which I shall name a few.
A certain citizen who had lived safe and untouched till the month of
September, when the weight of the distemper lay more in the city than
it had done before, was mighty cheerful, and something too bold (as I
think it was) in his talk of how secure he was, how cautious he had
A Journal of the Plague Year |
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 The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: and wife. The effects of a shock so dreadful on an ardent
temperament, a disposition already soured by bitter remorse, and
loosened by the indulgence of a gloomy imagination from the rest
of mankind, I cannot describe to you; it was as if the last cable
at which the vessel rode had suddenly parted, and left her
abandoned to all the wild fury of the tempest. He was placed
under medical restraint. As a temporary measure this might have
been justifiable; but his hard-hearted friend, who, in
consequence of his marriage, was now his nearest ally, prolonged
his confinement, in order to enjoy the management of his immense
estates. There was one who owed his all to the sufferer, an
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