| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: demanded her good behavior, Gertrude could not refrain from what
were almost orgies of lying and deceit. She well realized how
this would count against her and, indeed, wrote letters of
apology repeatedly for her misconduct.
``Let me come and tell you all. The time has come when things
must stop, therefore I feel that I must talk to someone. I have
lived a lie from the day I was born until now.''
After these letters she went on making false statements which
could readily be checked up. Nothing is any more curious in
Gertrude's case than the anomaly of her telling several of us who
tried to help her that up to the time of the given interview she
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister: complacence. "Bill Diggs of the Bird-in-Hand has been me since April,
'65." His massy hair had been yellow, his broad body must have weighed
two hundred and fifty pounds, his face was canny, red, and somewhat
clerical, resembling Henry Ward Beecher's.
"Trout," he said, pointing to a basket by the gate. "For your dinner.
"Then he climbed heavily but skilfully down and picked up the basket and
a rod. "Folks round here say," said he, "that there ain't no more trout
up them meadows. They've been a-sayin' that since '74; and I've been
a-sayin' it myself, when judicious." Here he shook slightly and opened
the basket. "Twelve," he said. "Sixteen yesterday. Now you go along
and turn in the first right-hand turn, and I'll be up with you soon.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: Whether Butler were the murderer of the Dewars or not, the theory
that represented them as having been killed for the purpose of
robbery has its weak side all the weaker if Butler, a practical
and ambitious criminal, were the guilty man.
In 1882, two years after Butler's trial, there appeared in a New
Zealand newspaper, Society, published in Christchurch, a series
of Prison "Portraits," written evidently by one who had
himself undergone a term of imprisonment. One of the "Portraits"
was devoted to an account of Butler. The writer had known Butler
in prison. According to the story told him by Butler, the latter
had arrived in Dunedin with a quantity of jewellery he had stolen
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
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 An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: Michu, who had not swerved from the shortest way, pulled up, found a
spot at the edge of the woods from which he could see the roofs of the
chateau of Cinq-Cygne lighted by the moon, tied his horse to a tree,
and followed by his wife, gained a little eminence which overlooked
the valley.
The chateau, which Marthe and Michu looked at together for a moment,
makes a charming effect in the landscape. Though it has little extent
and is of no importance whatever as architecture, yet archaeologically
it is not without a certain interest. This old edifice of the
fifteenth century, placed on an eminence, surrounded on all sides by a
moat, or rather by deep, wide ditches always full of water, is built
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