| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: great power of work. "Understand this," said Eyraud to one of
the detectives who brought him back to France, "I have never done
any work, and I never will do any work." To him work was
derogatory; better anything than that. Unfortunately it could
not be avoided altogether, but with Eyraud such work as he was
compelled at different times to endure was only a means for
procuring money for his degraded pleasures, and when honest work
became too troublesome, dishonesty served in its stead. When he
met Gabrielle he was almost at the end of his tether, bankrupt
and discredited. At a pinch he might squeeze a little money
out of his wife, with whom he continued to live in spite of his
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: with circumspection. But he was soon obliged to lengthen out his
regiments into column in order to climb the mountain which separates
the two valleys. They were descending at sunset into its hollow,
funnel-shaped summit, when they perceived on the level of the ground
before them bronze she-wolves which seemed to be running across the
grass.
Suddenly large plumes arose and a terrible song burst forth,
accompanied by the rhythm of flutes. It was the army under Spendius;
for some Campanians and Greeks, in their execration of Carthage, had
assumed the ensigns of Rome. At the same time long pikes, shields of
leopard's skin, linen cuirasses, and naked shoulders were seen on the
Salammbo |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: fact. It drops its venom into the tenderest hearts, alas! and
makes them call wrong, right; and right, wrong; love, cruelty; and
cruelty, love. Some say that the axe is laid to the root of it
just now, and that it is already tottering to its fall: while
others say that it is growing stronger than ever, and ready to
spread its upas-shade over the whole earth. For my part, I know
not, save that all shall be as God wills. The tree has been cut
down already again and again; and yet has always thrown out fresh
shoots and dropped fresh poison from its boughs. But this at
least I know: that any little child, who will use the faculties
God has given him, may find an antidote to all its poison in the
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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 Story of an African Farm by Olive Schreiner: strong, proud, restless heart of the woman. They were general words with a
general application. He looked up into the sparkling sky with dull eyes.
"Yes," he said; "but when we lie and think, and think, we see that there is
nothing worth doing. The universe is so large, and man is so small--"
She shook her head quickly.
"But we must not think so far; it is madness, it is a disease. We know
that no man's work is great, and stands forever. Moses is dead, and the
prophets and the books that our grandmothers fed on the mould is eating.
Your poet and painter and actor,--before the shouts that applaud them have
died their names grow strange, they are milestones that the world has
passed. Men have set their mark on mankind forever, as they thought; but
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