| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from When the Sleeper Wakes by H. G. Wells: me?"
"I come from Ostrog, Sire."
"Ostrog?"
The man in the ventilator twisted his head round
so that his profile was towards Graham. He appeared
to be listening. Suddenly there was a hasty exclamation,
and the intruder sprang back just in time to
escape the sweep of the released fan. And when
Graham peered up there was nothing visible but the
slowly falling snow.
It was perhaps a quarter of an hour before anything
When the Sleeper Wakes |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Royalty Restored/London Under Charles II by J. Fitzgerald Molloy: progress utterly fail, by advice of the medical faculty, ordered
that great fires should be kindled in certain districts, by way
of purifying the air, Accordingly, two hundred chaldrons of coal,
at four pounds a chaldron, were devoted to this purpose. At
first the fires were with great difficulty made to burn, through
the scarcity, it was believed, of oxygen in the atmosphere; but
once kindled, they continued blazing for three days and three
nights, when a heavy downpour of rain falling they were
extinguished. The following night death carried off four
thousand souls, and the experiment of these cleansing fires was
discontinued. All through this month fear and tribulation
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