| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: opportunity to make a fortune?"
Fellner's hand grasped that of his visitor. The eyes of the two men
gazed steadily at each other. The old man's glance was full of
sudden helpless horror, the detective's eyes shone brilliantly.
Muller spoke calmly: "This is one clue. Is there no one else who
could have an interest in the young lady's death?"
"No one but Egon Langen, if he bear this name by right, and if he
is still alive."
"How old would he be now?"
"He must be nearly forty. It was many years before Langen married
again."
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Enemies of Books by William Blades: old widow, named Naylor, whether she had any rags to sell. She answered,
No! but offered him some old paper, and took from a shelf the `Boke
of St. Albans' and others, weighing 9 lbs., for which she received 9_d_.
The pedlar carried them through Gainsborough tied up in string, past a
chemist's shop, who, being used to buy old paper to wrap his drugs in,
called the man in, and, struck by the appearance of the `Boke,' gave
him 3_s_. for the lot. Not being able to read the Colophon, he took it
to an equally ignorant stationer, and offered it to him for a guinea,
at which price he declined it, but proposed that it should be exposed
in his window as a means of eliciting some information about it.
It was accordingly placed there with this label, `Very old curious work.'
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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 Dreams by Olive Schreiner: there in the sun, when Hannibal and his men broke through the brushwood,
and no road was.
Now it is very quiet. Sometimes a peasant girl comes riding by between her
panniers, and you hear the mule's feet beat upon the bricks of the
pavement; sometimes an old woman goes past with a bundle of weeds upon her
head, or a brigand-looking man hurries by with a bundle of sticks in his
hand; but for the rest the Chapel lies here alone upon the promontory,
between the two bays and hears the sea break at its feet.
I came here one winter's day when the midday sun shone hot on the bricks of
the Roman road. I was weary, and the way seemed steep. I walked into the
chapel to the broken window, and looked out across the bay. Far off,
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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 Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: pilots at that time, I believe) is the brother-in-law of my
friend Solary (Baptistin), a broad-shouldered, deep-chested man
of forty, with a keen, frank glance which always seeks your eyes.
He greets me by a low, hearty, "He, l'ami. Comment va?" With
his clipped moustache and massive open face, energetic and at the
same time placid in expression, he is a fine specimen of the
southerner of the calm type. For there is such a type in which
the volatile southern passion is transmuted into solid force. He
is fair, but no one could mistake him for a man of the north even
by the dim gleam of the lantern standing on the quay. He is
worth a dozen of your ordinary Normans or Bretons, but then, in
Some Reminiscences |
