| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: crafty criminals, and disastrous for occasional criminals, who are
shut out by the supervision from re-adaptation to normal
existence. The system of indeterminate segregation renders all
special supervision useless. Moreover, this duty only distracts
policemen by compelling them to keep an eye on a few hundred
liberated convicts, and to neglect thousands of other criminals,
who increase the number of unknown perpetrators of crime.
Similarly as to the discharged prisoners' aid societies, which,
notwithstanding their many sentimental declamations, and the
excellence of their intentions, continue to be as sterile as they
are benevolent. The reason here also is that they forget
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: Once the flame appeared so near the road, that even in
the darkness around us I could watch the driver's motions.
He went rapidly to where the blue flame arose, it must have
been very faint, for it did not seem to illumine the place
around it at all, and gathering a few stones, formed them
into some device.
Once there appeared a strange optical effect.
When he stood between me and the flame he did not obstruct it,
for I could see its ghostly flicker all the same.
This startled me, but as the effect was only momentary, I took
it that my eyes deceived me straining through the darkness.
Dracula |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Options by O. Henry: weeding of the garden, but I thought I saw just a slight twinkle of
fun in her eyes.
"'No one of that name lives in Birchton,' says she. 'That is,' she
goes on, 'as far as I know. Is the gentleman you are seeking white?'
"Well, that tickled me. 'No kidding,' says I. 'I'm not looking for
smoke, even if I do come from Pittsburgh.'
"'You are quite a distance from home,' says she.
"'I'd have gone a thousand miles farther,' says I.
"'Not if you hadn't waked up when the train started in Shelbyville,'
says she; and then she turned almost as red as one of the roses on the
bushes in the yard. I remembered I had dropped off to sleep on a
Options |
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 Menexenus by Plato: for the liberties of the Leontines, to whom they were bound by oaths; but,
owing to the distance, the city was unable to help them, and they lost
heart and came to misfortune, their very enemies and opponents winning more
renown for valour and temperance than the friends of others. Many also
fell in naval engagements at the Hellespont, after having in one day taken
all the ships of the enemy, and defeated them in other naval engagements.
And what I call the terrible and desperate nature of the war, is that the
other Hellenes, in their extreme animosity towards the city, should have
entered into negotiations with their bitterest enemy, the king of Persia,
whom they, together with us, had expelled;--him, without us, they again
brought back, barbarian against Hellenes, and all the hosts, both of
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