The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: knights and dames of his court, and with these retired to the deep
seclusion of one of his castellated abbeys. This was an extensive
and magnificent structure, the creation of the prince's own
eccentric yet august taste. A strong and lofty wall girdled it in.
This wall had gates of iron. The courtiers, having entered,
brought furnaces and massy hammers and welded the bolts. They
resolved to leave means neither of ingress nor egress to the sudden
impulses of despair or of frenzy from within. The abbey was amply
provisioned. With such precautions the courtiers might bid
defiance to contagion. The external world could take care of
itself. In the meantime it was folly to grieve, or to think. The
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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 Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: behind the tapestry of his private apartment. Such
communications were frequent in old feudal castles, as they gave
the lord of the fortress, like a second Dionysius, the means of
hearing the conversation of his prisoners, or, if he pleased, of
visiting them in disguise, an experiment which had terminated so
unpleasantly on the present occasion for Gillespie Grumach.
Having examined previously whether there was any one in the
apartment, and finding the coast clear, the Captain entered, and
hastily possessing himself of a blank passport, several of which
lay on the table, and of writing materials, securing, at the same
time, the Marquis's dagger, and a silk cord from the hangings, he
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