| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: She had a few times in her life seen Lilla on the verge of fainting,
but never senseless; and now she was frightened. She threw herself
on her knees beside Lilla, and tried, by rubbing her hands and other
measures commonly known, to restore her. But all her efforts were
unavailing. Lilla still lay white and senseless. In fact, each
moment she looked worse; her breast, that had been heaving with the
stress, became still, and the pallor of her face grew like marble.
At these succeeding changes Mimi's fright grew, till it altogether
mastered her. She succeeded in controlling herself only to the
extent that she did not scream.
Lady Arabella had followed Caswall, when he had recovered
Lair of the White Worm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: such. Here the sage took his stand, and placed the ladies beside
him, once more earnestly repeating by signs his injunctions of
silence. The Italian then, extending his bare arm from under his
linen vestment, pointed with his forefinger to five large
flambeaux, or torches, placed on each side of the altar. They
took fire successively at the approach of his hand, or rather of
his finger, and spread a strong light through the room. By this
the visitors could discern that, on the seeming altar, were
disposed two naked swords laid crosswise; a large open book,
which they conceived to be a copy of the Holy Scriptures, but in
a language to them unknown; and beside this mysterious volume was
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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 Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: morning speedeth away. Lucrece, in this lamentable plight,
hastily dispatched messengers, one to Rome for her father,
another to the camp for Collatine. They came, the one
accompanied with Junius Brutus, the other with Publius Valerius;
and finding Lucrece attired in mourning habit, demanded the cause
of her sorrow. She, first taking an oath of them for her
revenge, revealed the actor, and whole manner of his dealing, and
withal suddenly stabbed herself. Which done, with one consent
they all vowed to root out the whole hated family of the
Tarquins; and bearing the dead body to Rome, Brutus acquainted
the people with the doer and manner of the vile deed, with a
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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 Little Britain by Washington Irving: bottles. He is a great reader of almanacs and newspapers, and
is much given to pore over alarming accounts of plots,
conspiracies, fires, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions; which
last phenomena he considers as signs of the times. He has
always some dismal tale of the kind to deal out to his customers,
with their doses; and thus at the same time puts both soul and
body into an uproar. He is a great believer in omens and
predictions; and has the prophecies of Robert Nixon and
Mother Shipton by heart. No man can make so much out of an
eclipse, or even an unusually dark day; and he shook the tail of
the last comet over the heads of his customers and disciples
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