| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of the Registered Letter by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: his conscientious attention to duty, and would insure praise for
him, whichever way the case turned out. Commissioner Lange saw the
force of this argument, and finally gave Muller permission to handle
the case as he thought best, rather relieved than otherwise for his
own part. The detective's next errand was to the prison, where he
now stood looking up into the deep-set, dark eyes of a tall,
broad-shouldered, black-bearded man, who had arisen from the cot at
his entrance. Albert Graumann had a strong, self-reliant face and
bearing. His natural expression was somewhat hard and stern, but it
was the expression of a man of integrity and responsibility. Muller
had already made some inquiries as to the prisoner's reputation and
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: the perfection of being true.
But after the knowledge of God and of the soul has rendered us certain of
this rule, we can easily understand that the truth of the thoughts we
experience when awake, ought not in the slightest degree to be called in
question on account of the illusions of our dreams. For if it happened
that an individual, even when asleep, had some very distinct idea, as, for
example, if a geometer should discover some new demonstration, the
circumstance of his being asleep would not militate against its truth; and
as for the most ordinary error of our dreams, which consists in their
representing to us various objects in the same way as our external senses,
this is not prejudicial, since it leads us very properly to suspect the
Reason Discourse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Philebus by Plato: PROTARCHUS: Yes.
SOCRATES: And memory may, I think, be rightly described as the
preservation of consciousness?
PROTARCHUS: Right.
SOCRATES: But do we not distinguish memory from recollection?
PROTARCHUS: I think so.
SOCRATES: And do we not mean by recollection the power which the soul has
of recovering, when by herself, some feeling which she experienced when in
company with the body?
PROTARCHUS: Certainly.
SOCRATES: And when she recovers of herself the lost recollection of some
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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 The Island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells: It was purely an experiment. It was a limbless thing, with a
horrible face, that writhed along the ground in a serpentine fashion.
It was immensely strong, and in infuriating pain. It lurked in
the woods for some days, until we hunted it; and then it wriggled
into the northern part of the island, and we divided the party
to close in upon it. Montgomery insisted upon coming with me.
The man had a rifle; and when his body was found, one of the barrels
was curved into the shape of an S and very nearly bitten through.
Montgomery shot the thing. After that I stuck to the ideal of humanity--
except for little things."
He became silent. I sat in silence watching his face.
The Island of Doctor Moreau |
