The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: Woffenbuttel.- Vapour andMould. -Brown stains.--Dr. Dibdin.-Hot
water .pipes.-Asbestos fire.-Glass doors to bookcases.
CHAPTER III.
GAS AND HEAT.
Effects of Gas on leather.--Necessitates re-binding.--Bookbinders.--Electric
light.--British Museum.-Treatment of books.- Legend of Friars and their books.
CHAPTER IV.
DUST AND NEGLECT.
Books should have gilt tops.-Old libraries were neglected.--
Instance of a College library.- Clothes brushed in it.-Abuses
in French libraries.-Derome's account of them.--Boccaccio's story
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: bronzing of fifteen summers in New Orleans. He was a member of a
wholesale hardware firm in that city, and had now revisited his
native North for the first time since his departure. A year
before, some letters relating to invoices of metal buttons signed,
"Foster, Kirkup, & Co., per Enos Billings," had accidentally
revealed to him the whereabouts of the old friend of his youth,
with whom we now find him domiciled. The first thing he did, after
attending to some necessary business matters in New York, was to
take the train for Waterbury.
"Enos," said he, as he stretched out his hand for the third cup of
tea (which he had taken only for the purpose of prolonging the
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