| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kenilworth by Walter Scott: Master Tapster."
"Thou wilt win no more Hollands, think, on such wager, friend
Mike," said the mercer; "for the sulky swain, Tony Foster, rails
at thee all to nought, and swears you shall ne'er darken his
doors again, for that your oaths are enough to blow the roof off
a Christian man's dwelling."
"Doth he say so, the mincing, hypocritical miser?" vociferated
Lambourne. "Why, then, he shall come down and receive my
commands here, this blessed night, under my uncle's roof! And I
will ring him such a black sanctus, that he shall think the devil
hath him by the skirts for a month to come, for barely hearing
 Kenilworth |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: no less than twenty-three Circles perished in domestic discord.
Great indeed was the peril. It seemed as though the Priests
had no choice between submission and extermination; when suddenly
the course of events was completely changed by one of those
picturesque incidents which Statesmen ought never to neglect,
often to anticipate, and sometimes perhaps to originate,
because of the absurdly disproportionate power with which they appeal
to the sympathies of the populace.
It happened that an Isosceles of a low type, with a brain little
if at all above four degrees -- accidentally dabbling in the colours
of some Tradesman whose shop he had plundered -- painted himself,
 Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |