| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: hill overlooking Dunedin, found a coat, a hat and silk striped
cravat, and a few days later a pair of trousers folded up and
placed under a bush. These articles of clothing were identified
as those which Butler had been seen wearing on the Saturday and
Sunday morning. They were examined. There were a number of
bloodstains on them, not one of them larger in size than a pea,
some almost invisible. On the front of the trousers about the
level of the groin there were blood spots on both sides. There
was blood on the fold of the left breast of the coat and on the
lining of the cuff of the right arm. The shirt Butler was
wearing at the time of his arrest was examined also. There were
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Whirligigs by O. Henry: widow. A man cannot love a murderess. So I suppose
that ends our acquaintance."
She looked up at him slowly. His face turned a little
pale, and he stared at her blankly, like a deaf-and-dumb
man who was wondering what it was all about.
She took a swift step toward him, with stiffened arms
and eyes blazing.
"Don't look at me like that!" she cried, as though she
were in acute pain. "Curse me, or turn your back
on me, but don't look that way. Am I a woman to be
beaten? If I could show you -- here on my arms, and
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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 Massimilla Doni by Honore de Balzac: admirably represented than in this grand imagery. Do you not feel a
sense of the splendor we are wont to attribute to that monarch of
antiquity?"
"It is indeed sublime music," said the Frenchman.
"The air /Pace mia smarrita/, which the Queen will now sing, is one of
those /bravura/ songs which every composer is compelled to introduce,
though they mar the general scheme of the work; but an opera would as
often as not never see the light, if the prima donna's vanity were not
duly flattered. Still, this musical 'sop' is so fine in itself that it
is performed as written, on every stage; it is so brilliant that the
leading lady does not substitute her favorite show piece, as is very
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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 Father Damien by Robert Louis Stevenson: be called remorse. I am sure it is so with yourself; I am
persuaded your letter was inspired by a certain envy, not
essentially ignoble, and the one human trait to be espied in that
performance. You were thinking of the lost chance, the past day;
of that which should have been conceived and was not; of the
service due and not rendered. TIME WAS, said the voice in your
ear, in your pleasant room, as you sat raging and writing; and if
the words written were base beyond parallel, the rage, I am happy
to repeat - it is the only compliment I shall pay you - the rage
was almost virtuous. But, sir, when we have failed, and another
has succeeded; when we have stood by, and another has stepped in;
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