| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Cruise of the Jasper B. by Don Marquis: and engravings, pinned to the walls with daggers; in the
wardrobe, coats and hats hanging from poignards and stilettos
thrust into the wood instead of from nails or hooks. But of all
the weapons it was the rapiers, of all the books it was Dumas,
that he loved. There was Dumas in French, Dumas in English,
Dumas with pictures, Dumas unillustrated, Dumas in cloth, Dumas
in leather, Dumas in boards, Dumas in paper covers. Cleggett had
been twenty years getting these arms and books together; often he
had gone without a dinner in order to make a payment on some
blade he fancied. And each weapon was also a book to him; he
sensed their stories as he handled them; he felt 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 Astoria by Washington Irving: was fain to comply. Upon this the great Tamaahmaah deputed his
favorite, John Young, the tarpaulin governor of Owyhee, to
proceed with a number of royal guards, and take possession of the
wreck on behalf of the crown. This was done accordingly, and the
property and crew were removed to Owyhee. The royal bounty
appears to have been but scanty in its dispensations. The crew
fared but meagerly; though, on reading the journal of the voyage,
it is singular to find them, after all the hardships they had
suffered, so sensitive about petty inconveniences, as to exclaim
against the king as a "savage monster," for refusing them a "pot
to cook in," and denying Mr. Ogden the use of a knife and fork
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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 Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: dislike; at the same time, and with more than compensating
strength, shame for a sentiment so inhuman bound them the more
straitly to his service; and even the evil they knew of him
swelled their solicitude, for the thought of death is always the
least supportable when it draws near to the merely sensual and
selfish. Sometimes they held him up; sometimes, with mistaken
helpfulness, they beat him between the shoulders; and when the
poor wretch lay back ghastly and spent after a paroxysm of
coughing, they would sometimes peer into his face, doubtfully
exploring it for any mark of life. There is no one but has some
virtue: that of the clerk was courage; and he would make haste to
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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 Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: lesser fiefs, were brought before the king and guarded in the
Conciergerie. And as these noble criminals were few, the Conciergerie
was large enough for the king's prisoners.
It is difficult now to be quite certain of the exact site of the
original Conciergerie. However, the kitchens built by Saint-Louis
still exist, forming what is now called the mousetrap; and it is
probable that the original Conciergerie was situated in the place
where, till 1825, the Conciergerie prisons of the Parlement were still
in use, under the archway to the right of the wide outside steps
leading to the supreme Court. From thence, until 1825, condemned
criminals were taken to execution. From that gate came forth all the
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