| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: utmost dignity, on his arm; and I followed them up the stairs,
smiling to myself.
Both were quick to salute me as soon as I was perceived, and Mrs.
McRankine inquired where I had been. I told her boastfully, giving
her the name of the church and the divine, and ignorantly supposing
I should have gained caste. But she soon opened my eyes. In the
roots of the Scottish character there are knots and contortions
that not only no stranger can understand, but no stranger can
follow; he walks among explosives; and his best course is to throw
himself upon their mercy - 'Just as I am, without one plea,' a
citation from one of the lady's favourite hymns.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: he the king? Answer not, for I do not care to know. Surely
yonder withered thing is Sigananda. I know his eye and the Iziqu
on his breast. Yes, I gave it to him after the great battle with
Zweede in which he killed five men. Does he remember it, I
wonder? Greeting, Sigananda; old as you are you have still
twenty and one years to live, and than we will talk of the battle
with Zweede. Let me begone, this place burns my spirit, and in
it there is a stench of mortal blood. Farewell, O Conqueror!"
These were the words that I thought I heard Chaka say, though I
daresay that I dreamt them. Indeed had it been otherwise, I mean
had they really been spoken by Zikali, there would surely have
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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 Gambara by Honore de Balzac: laws, explaining the changes he had introduced into their
constitution. And finally he announced that to conclude this
preliminary inspection, which could only satisfy a superficial
curiosity, he would perform on an instrument that contained all the
elements of a complete orchestra, and which he called a
/Panharmonicon/.
"If it is the machine in that huge case, which brings down on us the
complaints of the neighborhood whenever you work at it, you will not
play on it long," said Giardini. "The police will interfere. Remember
that!"
"If that poor idiot stays in the room," said Gambara in a whisper to
Gambara |
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 Pathology of Lying, Etc. by William and Mary Healy: bladder, which, however, did not cause any acute symptoms. A
chronic pelvic inflammation was discovered, for which she was
operated upon in her home town. The surgeon reported to the
parents that conditions were such that they would naturally be
highly irritative, although there had been no previous complaint
about them. The girl made an exceedingly rapid recovery. It was
after this that her last affair of the affections was causing the
parental quandary and distress.
Our final diagnosis of this ease, after careful study of it, was
that it was a typical case of pathological lying, mythomania, or
pseudologia phantastica. The girl could not be called a
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