| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: "Eight to a quarter past."
"You think he has been dead nearly twenty-four hours, Petrie?"
"Roughly, twenty-four hours," I replied.
"Then, we know that he was on the track of the Fu-Manchu group,
that he followed up some clew which led him to the neighborhood
of old Ratcliff Highway, and that he died the same night.
You are sure that is where he was going?"
"Yes," said Weymouth; "He was jealous of giving anything away,
poor chap; it meant a big lift for him if he pulled the case off.
But he gave me to understand that he expected to spend last night
in that district. He left the Yard about eight, as I've said,
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: whether on the literary movements of the day or
on the merits of Goethe or the humour of Gogol,
were welcome interruptions to his ever-absorbing
metaphysical studies. In later life, also, though
never in touch with the rising generation of
authors, we find him corresponding with them,
criticising their style and subject matter. When
Andreev, the most modern of all modern Russian
writers, came to pay his respects to Tolstoy some
months before his death, he was received with
cordiality, although Tolstoy, as he expressed him-
The Forged Coupon |
