| 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: insane."
While the young official was pondering over the problem, Muller
entered as quietly as ever, bowed, put his hat and cane in their
places, and shook the snow off his clothing. He was evidently
pleased about something. Kurt von Mayringen did not notice his
entrance. He was again at the desk with the open book before him,
staring at the mysterious words, "How I was murdered."
"It is a woman, a lady of position. And if she is mad, then her
madness certainly has method." Muller said these words in his
usual quiet way, almost indifferently. The young commissioner
started up and snatched for the fine white handkerchief which 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 A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: Sweetly suppos'd them mistress of his heart.
My woeful self, that did in freedom stand,
And was my own fee-simple, (not in part,)
What with his heart in youth, and youth in art,
Threw my affections in his charmed power,
Reserv'd the stalk, and gave him all my flower.
'Yet did I not, as some my equals did,
Demand of him, nor being desired yielded;
Finding myself in honour so forbid,
With safest distance I mine honour shielded:
Experience for me many bulwarks builded
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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 Disputation of the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences by Dr. Martin Luther: 25. Qualem potestatem habet papa in purgatorium generaliter, talem
habet quilibet Episcopus et Curatus in sua diocesi et parochia
specialiter.
1. [26] Optime facit papa, quod non potestate clavis (quam nullam
habet) sed per modum suffragii dat animabus remissionem.
2. [27] Hominem predicant, qui statim ut iactus nummus in cistam
tinnierit evolare dicunt animam.
3. [28] Certum est, nummo in cistam tinniente augeri questum et
avariciam posse: suffragium autem ecclesie est in arbitrio dei
solius.
4. [29] Quis scit, si omnes anime in purgatorio velint redimi,
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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 Myths and Myth-Makers by John Fiske: scholars may be said to have satisfactorily established, it is
this, that no trustworthy history can be obtained from either
the Iliad or the Odyssey merely by sifting out the mythical
element. Even if the poems contain the faint reminiscence of
an actual event, that event is inextricably wrapped up in
mythical phraseology, so that by no cunning of the scholar can
it be construed into history. In view of this it is quite
useless for Mr. Gladstone to attempt to base historical
conclusions upon the fact that Helena is always called "Argive
Helen," or to draw ethnological inferences from the
circumstances that Menelaos, Achilleus, and the rest of the
Myths and Myth-Makers |
