| 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: conversation with M. Goron, a witness who had known Gouffe
surprised him by saying abruptly, "There's another man who
disappeared about the same time as Gouffe." M. Goron pricked
up his ears. The witness explained that he had not mentioned the
fact before, as he had not connected it with his friend's
disappearance; the man's name, he said, was Eyraud, Michel
Eyraud, M. Goron made some inquires as to this Michel Eyraud. He
learnt that he was a married man, forty-six years of age, once a
distiller at Sevres, recently commission-agent to a bankrupt
firm, that he had left France suddenly, about the time of the
disappearance of Gouffe, and that he had a mistress, one
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 Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli: distrusted than among those who in the beginning were trusted.
Pandolfo Petrucci, Prince of Siena, ruled his state more by those who
had been distrusted than by others. But on this question one cannot
speak generally, for it varies so much with the individual; I will
only say this, that those men who at the commencement of a princedom
have been hostile, if they are of a description to need assistance to
support themselves, can always be gained over with the greatest ease,
and they will be tightly held to serve the prince with fidelity,
inasmuch as they know it to be very necessary for them to cancel by
deeds the bad impression which he had formed of them; and thus the
prince always extracts more profit from them than from those who,
The Prince |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle: but still he knelt. "I would crave thy mercy," said he.
"As thou hopest for Heaven's mercy, show mercy to me.
Strip me not of my lands and so reduce a true knight to poverty."
"Thy day is broken and thy lands forfeit," said the man of law,
plucking up his spirits at the Knight's humble speech.
Quoth Sir Richard, "Thou man of law, wilt thou not befriend me
in mine hour of need?"
"Nay," said the other, "I hold with this holy Prior, who hath
paid me my fees in hard gold, so that I am bounder to him."
"Wilt thou not be my friend, Sir Sheriff?" said Sir Richard.
"Nay, 'fore Heaven," quoth the Sheriff of Nottingham,
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood |
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 Droll Stories, V. 1 by Honore de Balzac: "Not at all, sire. Be sure that she will welcome even a dead man, so
madly does she long for a living one. Yesterday I saw her making love
to a young man's cap placed on the top of a chair, and you would have
laughed heartily at her words and gestures."
Now while this forty-year-old virgin was at vespers, the king sent to
have this young townsman, who had just finished the last scene of his
tragic farce, taken down, and having dressed him in a white shirt, two
officers got over the walls of La Godegrand's garden, and put the
corpse into her bed, on the side nearest the street. Having done this
they went away, and the king remained in the room with the balcony to
it, playing with Beaupertuys, and awaiting an hour at which the old
Droll Stories, V. 1 |
