| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Maria, or the Wrongs of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft: wonted benevolence, began to consider in what manner he could
extricate me out of my present irksome situation. In spite of his
own disappointment, or, most probably, actuated by the feelings
that had been petrified, not cooled, in all their sanguine fervour,
like a boiling torrent of lava suddenly dash ing into the sea, he
thought a marriage of mutual inclination (would envious stars permit
it) the only chance for happiness in this disastrous world. George
Venables had the reputation of being attentive to business, and my
father's example gave great weight to this circumstance; for habits
of order in business would, he conceived, extend to the regulation
of the affections in domestic life. George seldom spoke in my
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: of criminality in any one year is determined by the different
conditions of the physical and social environment, combined with
the hereditary tendencies and occasional impulses of the
individual, in obedience to a law which I have called, in analogy
with chemical phenomena, _the law of criminal saturation_.
Just as in a given volume of water, at a given temperature, we
find a solution of a fixed quantity of any chemical substance, not
an atom more or less, so in a given social environment, in certain
defined physical conditions of the individual, we find the
commission of a fixed number of crimes.
Our ignorance of many physical and psychical laws and of
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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 Malbone: An Oldport Romance by Thomas Wentworth Higginson: tropics, what hospitality can you offer? But no sense of
embarrassment ever came near Malbone, especially with the
children to swarm over him and claim him for their own.
Moreover, little Helen got in the first remark in the way of
serious conversation.
"Let me tell him something!" said the child. "Philip! that
doll of mine that you used to know, only think! she was sick
and died last summer, and went into the rag-bag. And the other
split down the back, so there was an end of her."
Polar ice would have been thawed by this reopening of
communication. Philip soon had the little maid on his
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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 Wyoming by William MacLeod Raine: and will let us know when you expect to honor the Lazy D, I'll
have messengers sent to meet you."
He perfectly understood her to mean leaden ones, and the humorous
gleam in his eye sparkled in appreciation of her spirit. "I don't
want all that fuss made over me. I reckon I'll drop in
unexpected," he said.
She nodded curtly. "Good-bye. Hope your ankle won't trouble you
very much."
"Thank y'u, ma'am. I reckon it won't. Good-bye, Miss Messiter."
Out of the tail of her eye she saw him bowing like an Italian
opera singer, as impudently insouciant, as gracefully graceless
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