The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac: Seraph.
The Seraph knelt before the SANCTUARY, beholding it, at last, face to
face; and he said, raising his hands thitherward, "Grant that these
two may have further sight; they will love the Lord and proclaim His
word."
At this prayer a veil fell. Whether it were that the hidden force
which held the Seers had momentarily annihilated their physical
bodies, or that it raised their spirits above those bodies, certain it
is that they felt within them a rending of the pure from the impure.
The tears of the Seraph rose about them like a vapor, which hid the
lower worlds from their knowledge, held them in its folds, bore them
 Seraphita |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Mucker by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the day he had renounced Barbara Harding to the man he
thought she loved. He read and re-read the accounts in the
papers, and then searching for more references to himself off
the sporting page he ran upon the very name that had been
constantly in his thoughts for all these months--Harding.
Persistent rumor has it that the engagement of the beautiful
Miss Harding to Wm. J. Mallory has been broken. Miss
Harding could not be seen at her father's home up to a late
hour last night. Mr. Mallory refused to discuss the matter, but
would not deny the rumor.
There was more, but that was all that Billy Byrne read. The
 The Mucker |