| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: Bridget came home singing "The Wearing of the Green," and let fall
a whole tray full of the best china before she could be got to bed.
Burroak, which, the year before, had a Republican majority of three
hundred, now went for the Democrats by more than five hundred. The
same party carried the State, electing their Governor by near
twenty thousand. The Republicans would now have gladly repealed
the bill giving us equal rights, but they were in a minority, and
the Democrats refused to co-operate. Mrs. Whiston, who still
remained loyal to our side, collected information from all parts of
the State, from which it appeared that four-fifths of all the
female citizens had voted the Democratic ticket. In New Lisbon,
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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 Tapestried Chamber by Walter Scott: though not without obvious reluctance, the history of his night's
adventures in the Tapestried Chamber.
"I undressed and went to bed so soon as your lordship left me
yesterday evening; but the wood in the chimney, which nearly
fronted my bed, blazed brightly and cheerfully, and, aided by a
hundred exciting recollections of my childhood and youth, which
had been recalled by the unexpected pleasure of meeting your
lordship, prevented me from falling immediately asleep. I ought,
however, to say that these reflections were all of a pleasant and
agreeable kind, grounded on a sense of having for a time
exchanged the labour, fatigues, and dangers of my profession for
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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 Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: resigned, what it was to break forth in a childish fury of
rebellion against fate, and what it was to sink into the coma of
despair. The time had changed him. He told himself no longer
tales of an easy and perhaps agreeable declension; he read his
nature otherwise; he had proved himself incapable of rising, and
he now learned by experience that he could not stoop to fall.
Something that was scarcely pride or strength, that was perhaps
only refinement, withheld him from capitulation; but he looked
on upon his own misfortune with a growing rage, and sometimes
wondered at his patience.
It was now the fourth month completed, and still there was
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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 The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: with him?"
"One man is enough to right his own wrong," said the taller and
older personage; "we venture our lives for him in coming thus
far on such an errand."
"Yopu are but a craven after all, Craigengelt," answered the
younger, "and that's what many folk have thought you before now."
"But what none has dared to tell me," said Craigengelt,
laying his hand on the hilt of his sword; "and, but that I hold a
hasty man no better than a fool, I would----" he paused for his
companion's answer.
"WOULD you?" said the other, coolly; "and why do you not then?"
The Bride of Lammermoor |
