| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: that his daughter's good spirits seemed to show that they
would naturally rise triumphant over all disappointments;
and he had had sufficient experience of her humour to know
that she might sometimes be led, but never could be driven.
Then, too, he was always delighted to hear her sing, though he was
not at all pleased in this instance with the subject of her song.
Still he would have endured the subject for the sake of the melody
of the treble, but his mind was not sufficiently attuned to unison
to relish the harmony of the bass. The friar's accompaniment
put him out of all patience, and--"So," he exclaimed, "this is
the way, you teach my daughter to renounce the devil, is it?
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: which had just been assigned to those of Robin Oig M'Combich by
the proprietor himself! Squire Ireby set spurs to his horse,
dashed up to his servant, and learning what had passed between
the parties, briefly informed the English drover that his bailiff
had let the ground without his authority, and that he might seek
grass for his cattle wherever he would, since he was to get none
there. At the same time he rebuked his servant severely for
having transgressed his commands, and ordered him instantly to
assist in ejecting the hungry and weary cattle of Harry
Wakefield, which were just beginning to enjoy a meal of unusual
plenty, and to introduce those of his comrade, whom the English
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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 White Moll by Frank L. Packard: but the most distrait attention to his companion, who was talking
to him.
Rhoda Gray sank quickly into a vacant chair. Three men, linked arm
in arm, and decidedly more than a little drunk, were approaching
her. She turned her head away to avoid attracting their attention.
It was too free and easy here to-night, and she began to regret her
temerity at having ventured inside; she would better, perhaps, have
waited until Danglar came out - only there were two exits, and she
might have missed him - and...
A cold fear upon her, she shrank back in her chair. The three men
had halted at the table, and were clustered around her. They began
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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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: I say just now despair? I was wrong. Birth-throes, and not death
pangs, those horrors were. Else they would have no place in my
discourse; no place, indeed, in my mind. Why talk over the signs
of disease, decay, death? Let the dead bury their dead, and let
us follow Him who dieth not; by whose command
The old order changeth, giving place to the new,
And God fulfils himself in many ways.
If we will believe this,--if we will look on each convulsion of
society, however terrible for the time being, as a token, not of
decrepitude, but of youth; not as the expiring convulsions of
sinking humanity, but as upward struggles, upward toward fuller
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