| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: the throats of his victims, and that, finding they lay in rather
an untoward position, he changed his mind, and, having
carried out the object with which he entered the house, left the
knife and, going back, brought the axe with which he effected his
purpose. What was the purpose of the murderer? Was it the
robbery of Dewar's paltry wages? Was it the act of a tiger
broken loose on the community? An act of pure wanton devilry? or
was there some more reasonable explanation of this most atrocious
crime?"
Butler rejected altogether the theory of ordinary theft. No
thief of ambitious views, he said, would pitch upon the house of
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Foolish Virgin by Thomas Dixon: "There's just one thing that'll hang over me like a
black cloud," he mused sorrowfully.
"I know, boy--your mother's darkened mind."
Jim nodded.
"When I see that queer glitter in her eyes it goes
through me like a knife. Will she ever get over it?"
"We can't tell yet. It takes time. I believe she
will."
"You'll do the best you can for her, Doc?" he
pleaded pathetically. "You won't forget her a single
day? If you can't cure her, nobody can."
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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 The Marriage Contract by Honore de Balzac: demanded it. Her devotion to Natalie made her, in a moment, as shrewd
and calculating as she had hitherto been careless and wasteful. She
resolved to turn her capital to account, after investing a part of it
in the Funds, which were then selling at eighty francs. A passion
often changes the whole character in a moment; an indiscreet person
becomes a diplomatist, a coward is suddenly brave. Hate made this
prodigal woman a miser. Chance and luck might serve the project of
vengeance, still undefined and confused, which she would now mature in
her mind. She fell asleep, muttering to herself, "To-morrow!" By an
unexplained phenomenon, the effects of which are familiar to all
thinkers, her mind, during sleep, marshalled its ideas, enlightened
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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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott: motioned the ladies to enter. They had no sooner done so than it
shut, and excluded their guide. The two ladies found themselves
in a small vestibule, illuminated by a dim lamp, and having, when
the door was closed, no communication with the external light or
air. The door of an inner apartment, partly open, was at the
farther side of the vestibule.
"We must not hesitate now, Jemima," said Lady Bothwell, and
walked forwards into the inner room, where, surrounded by books,
maps, philosophical utensils, and other implements of peculiar
shape and appearance, they found the man of art.
There was nothing very peculiar in the Italian's appearance. He
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