| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: more seemly, methinks, if yon Dumb man, who hath a sweet voice, would give
us a song."
At these words a silence fell on all, and after a while the Blind
man spoke again. Quoth he, "Thou dost surely jest when thou
sayest that thou dost not understand such words. Answer me this:
Hast thou ever fibbed a chouse quarrons in the Rome pad for the loure
in his bung?"[4]
[4] I.E., in old beggar's cant, "beaten a man or gallant upon the highway
for the money in his purse." Dakkar's ENGLISH VILLAINIES.
"Now out upon it," quoth Robin Hood testily, "an ye make sport of me
by pattering such gibberish, it will be ill for you all, I tell you.
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: until I had your authorization; but I, Comte d'Esgrignon, was pressed
for money, so I---- Come, come, your prosecution is a piece of
revengeful spite. Forgery is defined by the law as an attempt to
obtain any advantage which rightfully belongs to another. There is no
forgery here, according to the letter of the Roman law, nor according
to the spirit of modern jurisprudence (always from the point of a
civil action, for we are not here concerned with the falsification of
public or authentic documents). Between private individuals the
essence of a forgery is the intent to defraud; where is it in this
case? In what times are we living, gentlemen? Here is the President
going away to balk a preliminary examination which ought to be over by
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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 Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: calling up the policeman who stood by the door.
Egon Langen's face was grey with pallor, his features were
distorted, and yet there was the ghost of a smile on his lips as
he saw his captors enter the door. He put his hand out, raised
his handkerchief hastily and then a wild scream echoed through the
room, a scream that ended in a ghastly groan.
"I have taken your bottle, you might as well give yourself up
quietly," said Muller calmly, holding his revolver near Langen's
face. The prisoner threw himself at the detective but was caught
and overpowered by Amster and the policeman.
A quarter of an hour later the cabs drove back toward the city.
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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 Lucile by Owen Meredith: And the deep-bosom'd lilac, emparadising
The haunts where the blackbird and thrush flit and sing,
The keenest eye could but have seen, and seen only,
A circle of friends, minded not to leave lonely
The bird on the bough, or the bee on the blossom;
Conversing at ease in the garden's green bosom,
Like those who, when Florence was yet in her glories,
Cheated death and kill'd time with Boccaccian stories.
But at length the long twilight more deeply grew shaded,
And the fair night the rosy horizon invaded.
And the bee in the blossom, the bird on the bough,
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