| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Pocket Diary Found in the Snow by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: which followed the mysterious title, as the commissioner had done.
He began instead at the very first words.
"Ah! she is still young," he murmured, when he had read the first
lines. "Young, in easy circumstances, happy and contented."
These first pages told of pleasure trips, of visits from and to good
friends, of many little events of every-day life. Then came some
accounts, written in pencil, of shopping expeditions to the city.
Costly laces and jewels had been bought, and linen garments for
children by the dozen. "She is rich, generous, and charitable,"
thought the detective, for the book showed that the considerable
sums which had been spent here had not been for the writer herself.
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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 Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: VI
But what saith God?-- "Had it been possible, Epictetus, I
would have made both that body of thine and thy possessions free
and unimpeded, but as it is, be not deceived:-- it is not thine
own; it is but finely tempered clay. Since then this I could not
do, I have given thee a portion of Myself, in the power of
desiring and declining and of pursuing and avoiding, and is a
word the power of dealing with the things of sense. And if thou
neglect not this, but place all that thou hast therein, thou
shalt never be let or hindered; thou shalt never lament; thou
shalt not blame or flatter any. What then? Seemth this to thee a
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte: Ere I had finished this reply, my soul began to expand, to exult,
with the strangest sense of freedom, of triumph, I ever felt. It
seemed as if an invisible bond had burst, and that I had struggled
out into unhoped-for liberty. Not without cause was this sentiment:
Mrs. Reed looked frightened; her work had slipped from her knee; she
was lifting up her hands, rocking herself to and fro, and even
twisting her face as if she would cry.
"Jane, you are under a mistake: what is the matter with you? Why
do you tremble so violently? Would you like to drink some water?"
"No, Mrs. Reed."
"Is there anything else you wish for, Jane? I assure you, I desire
Jane Eyre |
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 Ancient Regime by Charles Kingsley: Loves of Daphnis and Chloe. And so men took to dreaming of
shepherds and shepherdesses, and painting them on canvas, and
modelling them in china, according to their cockney notions of what
they had been once, and always ought to be. We smile now at Sevres
and Dresden shepherdesses; but the wise man will surely see in them
a certain pathos. They indicated a craving after something better
than boorishness; and the many men and women may have become the
gentler and purer by looking even at them, and have said sadly to
themselves: "Such might have been the peasantry of half Europe, had
it not been for devastations of the Palatinate, wars of succession,
and the wicked wills of emperors and kings."
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