| 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: her employment in a silk manufactory. One day the girl, now
eighteen years old, attended the wedding of one of her companions
in the factory. She returned home after the ceremony thoughtful.
She said that she wanted to get married. The Baroness did not
take her statement seriously, and on the grocer calling one
day, said in jest to Amenaide, "You want a husband, there's one."
But Amenaide was in earnest. She accepted the suggestion and, to
the Baroness' surprise, insisted on taking the grocer as her
husband. Reluctantly the good lady gave her consent, and in 1855
Amenaide Brecourt became the wife of the grocer Gras.
A union, so hasty and ill-considered, was not likely to be of
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 Beast in the Jungle by Henry James: They were literally afloat together; for our gentleman this was
marked, quite as marked as that the fortunate cause of it was just
the buried treasure of her knowledge. He had with his own hands
dug up this little hoard, brought to light--that is to within reach
of the dim day constituted by their discretions and privacies--the
object of value the hiding-place of which he had, after putting it
into the ground himself, so strangely, so long forgotten. The rare
luck of his having again just stumbled on the spot made him
indifferent to any other question; he would doubtless have devoted
more time to the odd accident of his lapse of memory if he hadn't
been moved to devote so much to the sweetness, the comfort, as he
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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 King James Bible: CH1 12:20 As he went to Ziklag, there fell to him of Manasseh, Adnah,
and Jozabad, and Jediael, and Michael, and Jozabad, and Elihu, and
Zilthai, captains of the thousands that were of Manasseh.
CH1 12:21 And they helped David against the band of the rovers: for
they were all mighty men of valour, and were captains in the host.
CH1 12:22 For at that time day by day there came to David to help him,
until it was a great host, like the host of God.
CH1 12:23 And these are the numbers of the bands that were ready armed
to the war, and came to David to Hebron, to turn the kingdom of Saul to
him, according to the word of the LORD.
CH1 12:24 The children of Judah that bare shield and spear were six
King James Bible |
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 Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: completely; the palace front was thick with lighted windows; and
along the balustrade, the lamp on every twentieth baluster shone
clear. A few withered tracks of sunset, amber and glow-worm green,
still lingered in the western sky; and she paused once again to
watch them fading.
'And to think,' she said, 'that here am I - destiny embodied, a
norn, a fate, a providence - and have no guess upon which side I
shall declare myself! What other woman in my place would not be
prejudiced, and think herself committed? But, thank Heaven! I was
born just!' Otto's windows were bright among the rest, and she
looked on them with rising tenderness. 'How does it feel to be
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