| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: nothing to render hurried, to pay a visit to an old friend under
such agreeable circumstances.
The fresh horses, therefore, had only the brief task of conveying
the General's travelling carriage to Woodville Castle. A porter
admitted them at a modern Gothic lodge, built in that style to
correspond with the castle itself, and at the same time rang a
bell to give warning of the approach of visitors. Apparently the
sound of the bell had suspended the separation of the company,
bent on the various amusements of the morning; for, on entering
the court of the chateau, several young men were lounging about
in their sporting dresses, looking at and criticizing the dogs
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Lucile by Owen Meredith: III.
'Mid the world's weary denizens bound for these springs
In the month when the merle on the maple-bough sings,
Pursued to the place from dissimilar paths
By a similar sickness, there came to the Baths
Four sufferers--each stricken deep through the heart,
Or the head, by the self-same invisible dart
Of the arrow that flieth unheard in the noon,
From the sickness that walketh unseen in the moon,
Through this great lazaretto of life, wherein each
Infects with his own sores the next within reach.
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