| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Yates Pride by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman: "Maybe," said Ethel, "her folks were opposed."
"Nobody ever opposed Eudora Yates except her own self," replied
Abby. "Her father was dead, and Eudora's ma thought the sun rose
and set in her. She would never have opposed her if she had
wanted to marry a foreign duke or the old Harry himself."
"I remember it perfectly," said Mrs. Joseph Glynn.
"So do I," said Julia Esterbrook.
"Don't see why you shouldn't. You were plenty old enough to have
your memory in good working order if it was ever going to be,"
said Abby Simson.
"Well," said Ethel, "it is the funniest thing I ever heard of.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: in the hame-coming, an' then to hae to flyte wi' a wheen women
that hae been doing naething a' the live-lang day, but whirling a
bit stick, wi' a thread trailing at it, or boring at a clout."
"Frighted wi' bogles!" exclaimed the females, one and all,--for
great was the regard then paid, and perhaps still paid, in these
glens, to all such fantasies.
"I did not say frighted, now--I only said mis-set wi' the thing
--And there was but ae bogle, neither--Earnscliff, ye saw it; as
weel as I did?"
And he proceeded, without very much exaggeration, to detail, in
his own way, the meeting they had with the mysterious being at
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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 The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: with another, of forty sous /Parisis/ each, an exorbitant sum, that
was however justified by the luxury Tirechair had lavished on their
adornment. Flanders tapestry hung on the walls, and a large bed with a
top valance of green serge, like a peasant's bed, was amply furnished
with mattresses, and covered with good sheets of fine linen. Each room
had a stove called a /chauffe-doux/; the floor, carefully polished by
Dame Tirechair's apprentices, shone like the woodwork of a shrine.
Instead of stools, the lodgers had deep chairs of carved walnut, the
spoils probably of some raided castle. Two chests with pewter
mouldings, and tables on twisted legs, completed the fittings, worthy
of the most fastidious knights-banneret whom business might bring to
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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 A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: begged his brother to change his manner of life and "become
religious." His good counsel was not apparently very well
received. Peace's visitors took a depressing view of their
relative's condition. They found him "a poor, wretched, haggard
man," and, meeting Mrs. Thompson who was waiting outside the gaol
for news of "dear Jack," wondered how she could have taken up
with such a man.
When, the day before his execution, Peace was visited for the
last time by his wife, his stepson, his daughter, Mrs. Bolsover,
and her husband, he was in much better spirits. He asked his
visitors to restrain themselves from displays of emotion, as he
A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
