| 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: property to his sister. Somehow or other Castaing had got
possession of this will. On his death Castaing had invented the
story of Mme. Martignon's bribe to Lebret, and so persuaded
Auguste to outbid her. He had ingeniously kept Auguste and
Lebret apart by representing Lebret as refusing to deal direct
with Auguste, and by these means had secured to his own use the
sum of 100,000 francs, which Auguste believed was being paid to
Lebret as the price of his alleged destruction of his brother's
will. The plot was ingenious and successful. To Lebret and the
Martignons Castaing said that Hippolyte had made a will in Mme.
Martignon's favour, but had destroyed it himself some days before
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 The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: I am not, and may leave that vein.
No. I do not think I shall require to know the Gaelic; few things
are written in that language, or ever were; if you come to that,
the number of those who could write, or even read it, through
almost all my period, must, by all accounts, have been incredibly
small. Of course, until the book is done, I must live as much as
possible in the Highlands, and that suits my book as to health. It
is a most interesting and sad story, and from the '45 it is all to
be written for the first time. This, of course, will cause me a
far greater difficulty about authorities; but I have already
learned much, and where to look for more. One pleasant feature is
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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 Call of the Wild by Jack London: leks flew at him and administered a sound trouncing. The
resulting tangle was even worse, but Buck took good care to keep
the traces clear thereafter; and ere the day was done, so well had
he mastered his work, his mates about ceased nagging him.
Francois's whip snapped less frequently, and Perrault even honored
Buck by lifting up his feet and carefully examining them.
It was a hard day's run, up the Canon, through Sheep Camp, past
the Scales and the timber line, across glaciers and snowdrifts
hundreds of feet deep, and over the great Chilcoot Divide, which
stands between the salt water and the fresh and guards
forbiddingly the sad and lonely North. They made good time down
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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 The Duchesse de Langeais by Honore de Balzac: came noiselessly out of her chamber. Montriveau turned, saw her
flit like a shadow across the room, and trembled. She came up to
him, not with a bourgeoise's enquiry, "How do I look?" She was
sure of herself; her steady eyes said plainly, "I am adorned to
please you."
No one surely, save the old fairy godmother of some princess in
disguise, could have wound a cloud of gauze about the dainty
throat, so that the dazzling satin skin beneath should gleam
through the gleaming folds. The Duchess was dazzling. The pale
blue colour of her gown, repeated in the flowers in her hair,
appeared by the richness of its hue to lend substance to a
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