| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: captain. "Most probably Pobyedimsky has complained of Fyodor to
him, and they have come to take him to prison."
But the mystery was not so easily solved. The police inspector
and the police captain were only the first instalment, for five
minutes had scarcely passed when a coach drove in at our gate. It
dashed by me so swiftly that I could only get a glimpse of a red
beard.
Lost in conjecture and full of misgivings, I ran to the house. In
the passage first of all I saw mother; she was pale and looking
with horror towards the door, from which came the sounds of men's
voices. The visitors had taken her by surprise in the very throes
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: they'll be ruined! I tell you, ruined!"
"There, there," Dick interposed, when the last quavering syllable
had wailed itself out. "Don't let that worry you, little woman.
I'm old enough to be your father's brother, and I've a daughter
older than you, and I'll tog you out in fripperies when we get to
Dawson if it takes my last dollar."
"When we get to Dawson!" The scorn had come back to her throat
with a sudden surge. "You'll rot on the way, first. You'll drown
in a mudhole. You--you--Britishers!"
The last word, explosive, intensive, had strained the limits of
her vituperation. If that would not stir these men, what could?
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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 The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: alive to the indignity of abruptly turning and scuttling away
with the tail of her black silk swishing, her India shawl
trailing, and the baby-carriage bumping over the furrows. She
continued, and Harry Lawton continued, and they met.
Harry Lawton had known Eudora at once. She looked the same to
him as when she had been a girl, and he looked the same to her
when he spoke.
"Hullo, Eudora," said Harry Lawton, in a ludicrously boyish
fashion. His face flushed, too, like a boy. He extended his hand
like a boy. The man, seen near at hand, was a boy. In reality he
himself had not changed. A few layers of flesh and a change of
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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 Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: before trial and those for convicts!--should not be so comfortable
as to excite the envy (a vast injustice and imprudence) of the
honest and ill-fed rural labourer vegetating in his cottage, or of
the working-man pining in his garret.
Secondly, the obligation to labour should be imperative for all
who are in prison, except in case of sickness. Prisoners should
pay the State, not as now for their tobacco and wine, but for
food, clothes, and lodging, whilst the remainder of their earnings
should go to indemnify their victims.
The classical theory declares that ``the State,'' as Pessina
writes, ``being compelled to adopt deprivation of liberty as the
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