| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chronicles of the Canongate by Walter Scott: we time--we the strong and active of the party--to perform the
duties of the table to the more retired and bashful, to whom
these little attentions are due? The lady should be pressed to
her chicken, the old man helped to his favourite and tender
slice, the child to his tart. But not a fraction of a minute
have we to bestow on any other person than ourselves; and the
PRUT-PRUT--TUT-TUT of the guard's discordant note summons us to
the coach, the weaker party having gone without their dinner, and
the able-bodied and active threatened with indigestion, from
having swallowed victuals like a Lei'stershire clown bolting
bacon.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: fate cannot subject, us to as much sorrow as love enables us to
taste of happiness.' Our supper was a true scene of joy.
"In possession of Manon and of twelve hundred and fifty francs,
I was prouder and more contented than the richest voluptuary of
Paris with untold treasures. Wealth should be measured by the
means it affords us of satisfying our desires. There did not
remain to me at this moment a single wish unaccomplished. Even
the future gave me little concern. I felt a hope, amounting
almost to certainty, that my father would allow me the means of
living respectably in Paris, because I had become entitled, on
entering upon my twentieth year, to a share of my mother's
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