| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: During the whole of Monday, except for a visit from Mr. Parkman
Blake, Professor Webster was again locked alone in his
laboratory. Neither that night, nor early Tuesday morning, could
Littlefield get into the Professor's rooms to perform his
customary duties. On Tuesday the Professor lectured at twelve
o'clock, and later received the visit of the police officers that
has been described already. At four o'clock that afternoon,
the Professor's bell rang. Littlefield answered it. The Pro-
fessor asked the janitor whether he had bought his turkey for
Thanksgiving Day, which was on the following Thursday.
Littlefield said that he had not done so yet. Webster then
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Elixir of Life by Honore de Balzac: as religiously conscientious as his father was irreligious, in
virtue, perhaps, of the old rule, "A miser has a spendthrift
son." The Abbot of San-Lucar was chosen by Don Juan to be the
director of the consciences of the Duchess of Belvidero and her
son Felipe. The ecclesiastic was a holy man, well shaped, and
admirably well proportioned. He had fine dark eyes, a head like
that of Tiberius, worn with fasting, bleached by an ascetic life,
and, like all dwellers in the wilderness, was daily tempted. The
noble lord had hopes, it may be, of despatching yet another monk
before his term of life was out.
But whether because the Abbot was every whit as clever as Don
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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 War in the Air by H. G. Wells: all. Quite heedlessly they allowed thistouch-paper to lie at the
door of their war magazine for any spark to fire. The precedents
of history were all one tale of the collapse of civilisations,
the dangers of the time were manifest. One is incredulous now to
believe they could not see.
Could mankind have prevented this disaster of the War in the Air?
An idle question that, as idle as to ask could mankind have
prevented the decay that turned Assyria and Babylon to empty
deserts or the slow decline and fall, the gradual social
disorganisation, phase by phase, that closed the chapter of the
Empire of the West! They could not, because they did not, they
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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 Stories From the Old Attic by Robert Harris: all alone among who knows what frightening stuff."
"This is great," said the other. "What an adventure. I can't wait
to see what happens."
As the light began to fade, the youths happened upon a snake,
sitting on a rock to get the last warmth it could find before the
cold night set in.
"Oh, no!" said the first youth. "Out here it's just one problem
after another. Now we'll have to worry about that snake crawling
all over us as we sleep."
"What a great opportunity," said the second youth. "Now we can have
some dinner." Soon the snake was roasting on an impromptu fire, and
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