| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of the Registered Letter by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: his family to ask for outside assistance, and agreed with Muller
that it was better to have some one in the official service brought
in, rather than a private detective whose work, in its eventual
results, might bring shame on the police. Muller explained that
Miss Graumann did not want her nephew to know that it was she who
had asked for aid in his behalf, and that it could only redound to
his, Lange's, credit if it were understood that he had sent to
Vienna for expert assistance in this case. It would be a proof of
his conscientious attention to duty, and would insure praise for
him, whichever way the case turned out. Commissioner Lange saw the
force of this argument, and finally gave Muller permission to handle
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: not that the race to whom we owe the critical spirit did not
criticise. You will not ask me to give you a survey of Greek art
criticism from Plato to Plotinus. The night is too lovely for
that, and the moon, if she heard us, would put more ashes on her
face than are there already. But think merely of one perfect
little work of aesthetic criticism, Aristotle's TREATISE ON POETRY.
It is not perfect in form, for it is badly written, consisting
perhaps of notes dotted down for an art lecture, or of isolated
fragments destined for some larger book, but in temper and
treatment it is perfect, absolutely. The ethical effect of art,
its importance to culture, and its place in the formation of
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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 Mansion by Henry van Dyke: neighborhood.
It almost seemed to be lifted up a little, among the tall
buildings
near at hand, as if it felt the rising value of the land on which
it stood.
John Weightman was like the house into which he had built himself
thirty years ago, and in which his ideals and ambitions were
incrusted.
He was a self-made man. But in making himself he had chosen a
highly esteemed pattern and worked according to the approved
rules.
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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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: Then the priests, who till this moment had been his servants,
dragged their chief to the stone, and there, notwithstanding his
prayers and bellowings, one who had donned his mantle practised his
own art upon him, and presently his body was cast down the side of
the pyramid. For my part I am not sufficient of a Christian to
pretend that I was sorry to see him die in that same fashion by
which he had caused the death of so many better men.
When it was done Guatemoc turned to me and said, 'So perish all
your enemies, my friend Teule.'
Within an hour of this event, which revealed to me how great was
the power of Montezuma, seeing that the sight of a ring from his
Montezuma's Daughter |
