| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: have so far been unable to obtain the slightest clue.
Barely had he finished this when the police arrived--the Inspector himself and
two of his keenest sleuths. Alarm sat upon their faces, and it was plain that
they were seriously perturbed. Though the facts were so few and simple, we
talked long, going over the affair again and again. When the Inspector went
away, he confidently assured us that everything would soon be straightened out
and the assassins run to earth. In the meantime he thought it well to detail
guards for the protection of Mr. Hale and myself, and several more to be
constantly on the vigil about the house and grounds. After the lapse of a
week, at one o'clock in the afternoon, this telegram was received:
OFFICE OF THE M. OF M. October 2I, 1899.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Symposium by Plato: miserable harper, who went down to Hades alive, that he might bring back
his wife, was mocked with an apparition only, and the gods afterwards
contrived his death as the punishment of his cowardliness. The love of
Achilles, like that of Alcestis, was courageous and true; for he was
willing to avenge his lover Patroclus, although he knew that his own death
would immediately follow: and the gods, who honour the love of the beloved
above that of the lover, rewarded him, and sent him to the islands of the
blest.
Pausanias, who was sitting next, then takes up the tale:--He says that
Phaedrus should have distinguished the heavenly love from the earthly,
before he praised either. For there are two loves, as there are two
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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 Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: joined. "Sire" says he, "it is time now to tell you what I
intend, and why I have come here. Too long I have refrained from
speech, and now can no longer conceal my object. I ask you for
`the Joy' of the Court, for I covet nothing else so much. Grant
it to me, whatever it be, if you are in control of it." "In
truth, fair friend." the King replies, "I hear you speak great
nonsense. This is a very parlous thing, which has caused sorrow
to many a worthy man; you yourself will eventually be killed and
undone if you will not heed my counsel. But if you were willing
to take my word, I should advise you to desist from soliciting so
grievous a thing in which you would never succeed. Speak of it
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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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: healthy and by no means stupid woman, had never been beyond her
native village, had never seen a town nor a railway in her life,
and had spent the last ten years sitting behind the stove, and
only at night going out into the street.
"What is there wonderful in that!" said Burkin. "There are plenty
of people in the world, solitary by temperament, who try to
retreat into their shell like a hermit crab or a snail. Perhaps
it is an instance of atavism, a return to the period when the
ancestor of man was not yet a social animal and lived alone in
his den, or perhaps it is only one of the diversities of human
character -- who knows? I am not a natural science man, and it is
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