| 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: CAMPBELL.
THE circumstances announced in the conclusion of the last
chapter will account for the ready and cheerful reception of the
Marquis of A---- and the Master of Ravenswood in the village of
Wolf's Hope. In fact, Caleb had no sooner announced the
conflagration of the tower than the whole hamlet were upon foot
to hasten to extinguish the flames. And although that zealous
adherent diverted their zeal by intimating the formidable
contents of the subterranean apartments, yet the check only
turned their assiduity into another direction. Never had there
been such slaughtering of capons, and fat geese, and barndoor
The Bride of Lammermoor |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Twelve Stories and a Dream by H. G. Wells: "The position I had assumed," said Mr. Ledbetter when he told me of
these things, "was in many respects an ill-advised one. A transverse
bar beneath the bed depressed my head unduly, and threw a
disproportionate share of my weight upon my hands. After a time, I
experienced what is called, I believe, a crick in the neck. The
pressure of my hands on the coarsely-stitched carpet speedily became
painful. My knees, too, were painful, my trousers being drawn tightly
over them. At that time I wore rather higher collars than I do now--two
and a half inches, in fact--and I discovered what I had not remarked
before, that the edge of the one I wore was frayed slightly under
the chin. But much worse than these things was an itching of my face,
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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 The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: acclamations of victory. He seemed for an instant animated by
all his wonted power; for he started from the rock on which he
sat, and while the garments with which he had been invested fell
from his wasted frame, and showed the ruins of his strength, he
tossed his arms wildly to heaven, and uttered a cry of
indignation, horror, and despair, which, tradition says, was
heard to a preternatural distance, and resembled the cry of a
dying lion more than a human sound.
His friends received him in their arms as he sank utterly
exhausted by the effort, and bore him back to his castle in mute
sorrow; while his daughter at once wept for her brother, and
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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 Democracy In America, Volume 2 by Alexis de Toqueville: science, and art; its form will, on the contrary, ordinarily be
slighted, sometimes despised. Style will frequently be
fantastic, incorrect, overburdened, and loose - almost always
vehement and bold. Authors will aim at rapidity of execution,
more than at perfection of detail. Small productions will be
more common than bulky books; there will be more wit than
erudition, more imagination than profundity; and literary
performances will bear marks of an untutored and rude vigor of
thought -frequently of great variety and singular fecundity. The
object of authors will be to astonish rather than to please, and
to stir the passions more than to charm the taste. Here and
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