| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen: his eating, she had, by her own unassisted observation,
already discovered; but why he should say one thing
so positively, and mean another all the while,
was most unaccountable! How were people, at that rate,
to be understood? Who but Henry could have been aware
of what his father was at?
From Saturday to Wednesday, however, they were now
to be without Henry. This was the sad finale of every
reflection: and Captain Tilney's letter would certainly come
in his absence; and Wednesday she was very sure would be wet.
The past, present, and future were all equally in gloom.
Northanger Abbey |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lone Star Ranger by Zane Grey: being there not an ugly dream? What had he in common with such
ruffians? Then in a flash of memory came the painful proof--he
was a criminal in sight of Texas law; he, too, was an outcast.
For the moment Duane was wrapped up in painful reflections; but
Euchre's heavy hand, clapping with a warning hold on his arm,
brought him back to outside things.
The hum of voices, the clink of coin, the loud laughter had
ceased. There was a silence that manifestly had followed some
unusual word or action sufficient to still the room. It was
broken by a harsh curse and the scrape of a bench on the floor.
Some man had risen.
The Lone Star Ranger |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: your secret is as safe with me as if I were in Graden Floe. I have
scarce spoken to any one for years; my horse is my only companion,
and even he, poor beast, is not beside me. You see, then, you may
count on me for silence. So tell me the truth, my dear young lady,
are you not in danger?"
"Mr. Northmour says you are an honourable man," she returned, "and
I believe it when I see you. I will tell you so much; you are
right; we are in dreadful, dreadful danger, and you share it by
remaining where you are."
"Ah!" said I; "you have heard of me from Northmour? And he gives
me a good character?"
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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 Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: yielded all it could, and writers of the present day who still
cling to it can only recast the old material. The youngest of
them, indeed, are condemned to a sort of Byzantine discussion of
scholastic formulas, and to a sterile process of scientific
rumination.
And meantime, outside our universities and academies, criminality
continues to grow, and the punishments hitherto inflicted, though
they can neither protect nor indemnify the honest, succeed in
corrupting and degrading evil-doers. And whilst our treatises and
codes (which are too often mere treatises cut up into segments)
lose themselves in the fog of their legal abstractions, we feel
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