| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: covers the baker's oven mystery as well. In
the case of the oven, however, the inmate is
concealed from start to finish, and this gives
him much greater latitude for his actions. M.
Chabert made the oven the big feature of his
programme and succeeded in puzzling many of
the best informed scientists of his day.
Eating coals of fire has always been one of
the sensational feats of the Fire Kings, as it
is quite generally known that charcoal burns
with an extremely intense heat. This fervent
 Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: 'tis East Street! How splendid and light it is! But really it is terrible
what an effect that one glass of punch must have had on me!"
Two minutes later, he was sitting in a hackney-coach and driving to
Frederickshafen. He thought of the distress and agony he had endured, and
praised from the very bottom of his heart the happy reality--our own
time--which, with all its deficiencies, is yet much better than that in which,
so much against his inclination, he had lately been.
III. The Watchman's Adventure
"Why, there is a pair of galoshes, as sure as I'm alive!" said the watchman,
awaking from a gentle slumber. "They belong no doubt to the lieutenant who
lives over the way. They lie close to the door."
 Fairy Tales |