| 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: organic conditions.
In like manner, certain indecent assaults, incests, &c., are
largely the outcome of social environment, which, condemning a
number of persons to live in hovels without air or light,
with a promiscuity of sex between parents and children such as
obtains amongst the brutes, effaces or deadens all normal sense of
modesty. On the other hand, there are cases of rape and the like
which are mostly due to the biological condition of the
individual, either in manifest forms of sexual disease or, less
manifest though none the less actual, of biological anomaly.
For thefts, again, whilst occasional simple thefts are largely the
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor: son. His accomplishments, and perhaps, also, a certain
aristocratic grace of manner unconsciously caught from the Baron
von Herisau, speedily won for him the favor of the Count and
Countess Kasincsky, and emboldened him to hope for the hand of the
Countess' sister, Helmine ----, to whom he was no doubt sincerely
attached. Here Johann Helm, or "Jean," a confidential servant of
the Count, who looked upon the new tutor as a rival, yet adroitly
flattered his vanity for the purpose of misleading and displacing
him, appears upon the stage. "Jean" first detected Otto's passion;
"Jean," at an epicurean dinner, wormed out of Otto the secret of
the Herisau documents, and perhaps suggested the part which the
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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 Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: own authority or by that of the Canons.
6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that
it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God's
remission; though, to be sure, he may grant remission in cases
reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in
such cases were despised, the guilt would remain entirely
unforgiven.
7. God remits guilt to no one whom He does not, at the same
time, humble in all things and bring into subjection to His
vicar, the priest.
8. The penitential canons are imposed only on the living, and,
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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 Pupil by Henry James: "I don't understand you," said Pemberton.
"Well, you will before long. All right!"
He did understand fully before long, but he made a fight even with
himself before he confessed it. He thought it the oddest thing to
have a struggle with the child about. He wondered he didn't hate
the hope of the Moreens for bringing the struggle on. But by the
time it began any such sentiment for that scion was closed to him.
Morgan was a special case, and to know him was to accept him on his
own odd terms. Pemberton had spent his aversion to special cases
before arriving at knowledge. When at last he did arrive his
quandary was great. Against every interest he had attached
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