| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: Letter: TO MRS. FLEEMING JENKIN
[SKERRYVORE, BOURNEMOUTH, JUNE 1885.]
MY DEAR MRS. JENKIN, - You know how much and for how long I have
loved, respected, and admired him; I am only able to feel a little
with you. But I know how he would have wished us to feel. I never
knew a better man, nor one to me more lovable; we shall all feel
the loss more greatly as time goes on. It scarce seems life to me;
what must it be to you? Yet one of the last things that he said to
me was, that from all these sad bereavements of yours he had
learned only more than ever to feel the goodness and what we, in
our feebleness, call the support of God; he had been ripening so
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: been borrowed for a few hours. Duclos, a provincial advocate,
had acted in good faith, in having been represented to him that
such fictitious transactions were frequently used in Paris
for the purpose of getting over some temporary financial
difficulty. On the 15th of February the deed of the sale of
Buisson-Souef had been brought by a woman to the office of a
scrivener employed by Derues; it was already signed, but the
woman asked that certain blanks should be filled in and that the
document should be dated. She was told that the date should be
that of the day on which the parties had signed it. She gave it
as February 12. A few days later Derues called at the office and
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Bride of Lammermoor by Walter Scott: complicated and technical statement of the matters which had been
in debate betwixt their families, justly thinking that it would
be difficult for a youth of his age to follow the expositions of
a practical lawyer, concerning actions of compt and reckoning,
and of multiplepoindings, and adjudications and wadsets, proper
and improper, and poindings of the ground, and declarations of
the expiry of the legal. "Thus," thought Sir William, "I shall
have all the grace of appearing perfectly communicative, while my
party will derive very little advantage from anything I may tell
him." He therefore took Ravenswood aside into the deep recess of
a window in the hall, and resuming the discourse of the proceding
The Bride of Lammermoor |
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 War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells: a reprieve. To them, and not to us, perhaps, is the future
ordained.
I must confess the stress and danger of the time have left
an abiding sense of doubt and insecurity in my mind. I sit
in my study writing by lamplight, and suddenly I see again
the healing valley below set with writhing flames, and feel
the house behind and about me empty and desolate. I go
out into the Byfleet Road, and vehicles pass me, a butcher
boy in a cart, a cabful of visitors, a workman on a bicycle,
children going to school, and suddenly they become vague
and unreal, and I hurry again with the artilleryman through
War of the Worlds |
