| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Susan by Jane Austen: Frederica spends great part of the day there, practising as it is called;
but I seldom hear any noise when I pass that way; what she does with
herself there I do not know. There are plenty of books, but it is not every
girl who has been running wild the first fifteen years of her life, that
can or will read. Poor creature! the prospect from her window is not very
instructive, for that room overlooks the lawn, you know, with the shrubbery
on one side, where she may see her mother walking for an hour together in
earnest conversation with Reginald. A girl of Frederica's age must be
childish indeed, if such things do not strike her. Is it not inexcusable to
give such an example to a daughter? Yet Reginald still thinks Lady Susan
the best of mothers, and still condemns Frederica as a worthless girl! He
Lady Susan |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: faithfully by me, but you urge the freedom of an ancient domestic
somewhat too far. But farewell; and if Heaven afford me better
means, I will not fail to contribute to your comfort."
He attempted to put a piece of gold into her hand, which she
refused to receive; and, in the slight struggle attending his
wish to force it upon her, it dropped to the earth.
"Let it remain an instant on the ground," said Alice, as the
Master stooped to raise it; "and believe me, that piece of gold
is an emblem of her whom you love; she is as precious, I grant,
but you must stoop even to abasement before you can win her. For
me, I have as little to do with gold as with earthly passions;
The Bride of Lammermoor |
| 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: when his senses have been excited, his passion inflamed by the
cunning of the woman, as the jealous passion of Othello is played
on and excited by Iago, the patriotism of Brutus artfully
exploited by Cassius, he yields to the repeated solicitation and
does a deed in every way repugnant to his normal character.
Nothing seems so blinding in its effect on the moral sense as
passion. It obscures all sense of humour, proportion, congruity;
the murder of the man or woman who stands in the way of its full
enjoyment becomes an act of inverted justice to the perpetrators;
they reconcile themselves to it by the most perverse reasoning
until they come to regard it as an act, in which they may
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 Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: tail, sufficiently indicates that this is a new kind of bear. The
further study of it will be exceedingly interesting. Meantime I
will go off on a far expedition among the forests of the North and
make an exhaustive search. There must certainly be another one
somewhere, and this one will be less dangerous when it has company
of its own species. I will go straightway; but I will muzzle this
one first.
Three Months Later
It has been a weary, weary hunt, yet I have had no success. In
the mean time, without stirring from the home estate, she has
caught another one! I never saw such luck. I might have hunted
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