| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: some dignity to the man who tries it. Our judgments are
based upon two things: first, upon the original preferences
of our soul; but, second, upon the mass of testimony to the
nature of God, man, and the universe which reaches us, in
divers manners, from without. For the most part these divers
manners are reducible to one, all that we learn of past times
and much that we learn of our own reaching us through the
medium of books or papers, and even he who cannot read
learning from the same source at second-hand and by the
report of him who can. Thus the sum of the contemporary
knowledge or ignorance of good and evil is, in large measure,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A House of Pomegranates by Oscar Wilde: full of singing birds and of sweet-scented flowers, and the Star-
Child entered it gladly. Yet did its beauty profit him little, for
wherever he went harsh briars and thorns shot up from the ground
and encompassed him, and evil nettles stung him, and the thistle
pierced him with her daggers, so that he was in sore distress. Nor
could he anywhere find the piece of white gold of which the
Magician had spoken, though he sought for it from morn to noon, and
from noon to sunset. And at sunset he set his face towards home,
weeping bitterly, for he knew what fate was in store for him.
But when he had reached the outskirts of the wood, he heard from a
thicket a cry as of some one in pain. And forgetting his own
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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 Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: brandy at the hostler-wife's at Wolf's Hope down below; and he
held out some obscure hint that the reckoning would be
discharged by the Master; but this was uttered in a very dubious
and oracular strain, for, like Louis XIV., Caleb Balderstone
hesitated to carry finesse so far as direct falsehood, and was
content to deceive, if possible, without directly lying.
This annunciation was received with surprise by some, with
laughter by others, and with dismay by the expelled lackeys, who
endeavoured to demonstrate that their right of readmission, for
the purpose of waiting upon their master and mistress, was at
least indisputable. But Caleb was not in a humour to understand
The Bride of Lammermoor |
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 Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: carriage, filled with ladies and children, coming toward me; and by
it rode a gentleman on horseback. His horse was rearing among the
hissing geese, but neither horse nor geese appeared to engage him;
his eyes were fixed upon me. The horse swerved so near that its
long mane almost brushed against me. By an irresistible impulse I
laid my ungloved hand upon it, but did not look at the rider.
Carriage and horseman passed on, and William resumed his pace. A
vague idea took possession of me that I had seen the horseman
before on my various drives. I had a vision of a man galloping on
a black horse out of the fog, and into it again. I was very sure,
however, that I had never seen him on so pleasant a day as this!
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