| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: great body trembled, his arms shook, but he did not make a single
voluntary movement. He saw the revolver in Muller's hand and felt
the keen grey eyes resting on him in pitiless calm.
"And now tell us about the pastor?" said the detective in a firm
clear voice.
"Oh, he was a dear, good gentleman," said No. 302 with an expression
of pitying sorrow on his face. "I owed him much gratitude; that's
why I put the roses in his hand."
"Yes, but you murdered him first."
"Of course, Gyuri told me to."
"And why?"
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: ready. Silverado would then be still in shadow, the sun
shining on the mountain higher up. A clean smell of trees, a
smell of the earth at morning, hung in the air. Regularly,
every day, there was a single bird, not singing, but
awkwardly chirruping among the green madronas, and the sound
was cheerful, natural, and stirring. It did not hold the
attention, nor interrupt the thread of meditation, like a
blackbird or a nightingale; it was mere woodland prattle, of
which the mind was conscious like a perfume. The freshness
of these morning seasons remained with me far on into the
day.
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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 Enemies of Books by William Blades: from the first leaf of a rare "fifteener," pasted down with dozens of others,
varying in value, you cannot bless the memory of the antiquarian shoemaker,
John Bagford. His portrait, a half-length, painted by Howard, was engraved
by Vertue, and re-engraved for the Bibliographical Decameron.
A bad example often finds imitators, and every season there crop up
for public sale one or two such collections, formed by bibliomaniacs,
who, although calling themselves bibliophiles, ought really to be ranked
among the worst enemies of books.
The following is copied from a trade catalogue, dated April, 1880, and affords
a fair idea of the extent to which these heartless destroyers will go:--
"MISSAL ILLUMINATIONS.
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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 A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: place, although he is sixty-nine, he has a fancy; and because he is
sixty-nine, he is as methodical as a clock face. Every day at five
o'clock the old gentleman goes to dine with /her/ in the Rue de la
Victoire. (I am sorry for her.) Then at six o'clock, he comes here,
reads steadily at the papers for four hours, and goes back at ten
o'clock. Daddy Croizeau says that he knows M. Denisart's motives, and
approves his conduct; and in his place, he would do the same. So I
know exactly what to expect. If ever I am Mme. Croizeau, I shall have
four hours to myself between six and ten o'clock.'
"Maxime looked through the directory, and found the following
reassuring item:
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