| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Master of the World by Jules Verne: sticks in hand. Undoubtedly, they were staring persistently at my
apparently unwatchful house. Then, having exchanged a few words, they
strolled off a little way, and returned again.
"Are you sure these are the same men you saw before?"
"Yes, sir."
Evidently, I could no longer dismiss her warning as an hallucination;
and I promised myself to clear up the matter. As to following the men
myself, I was presumably too well known to them. To address them
directly would probably be of no use. But that very day, one of our
best men should be put on watch, and if the spies returned on the
morrow, they should be tracked in their turn, and watched until their
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Virginibus Puerisque by Robert Louis Stevenson: conceived for the use of mediocre people, to discourage them
from ambitious attempts, and generally console them in their
mediocrity. And since mediocre people constitute the bulk of
humanity, this is no doubt very properly so. But it does not
follow that the one sort of proposition is any less true than
the other, or that Icarus is not to be more praised, and
perhaps more envied, than Mr. Samuel Budgett the Successful
Merchant. The one is dead, to be sure, while the other is
still in his counting-house counting out his money; and
doubtless this is a consideration. But we have, on the other
hand, some bold and magnanimous sayings common to high races
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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 Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions by Edwin A. Abbot: which is about the average duration of the foodless existence
of the Criminal class. In the cheaper schools, what is gained
by the longer existence of the Specimen is lost, partly in
the expenditure for food, and partly in the diminished accuracy
of the angles, which are impaired after a few weeks
of constant "feeling". Nor must we forget to add, in enumerating
the advantages of the more expensive system, that it tends,
though slightly yet perceptibly, to the diminution of the redundant
Isosceles population -- an object which every statesman in Flatland
constantly keeps in view. On the whole therefore --
although I am not ignorant that, in many popularly elected
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions |
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 The Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: darkened, making its terrifying ugliness the more apparent.
"This is the third murder in two years," said the magistrate in a
low voice.
"And the most mysterious of all of them," added the clerk.
"Yes, it is," said the doctor. "And there is not a trace of the
body, you say? - or a clue as to where they might have taken the
dead - or dying man?"
With these words he looked carefully around the room, but there
was no more blood to be seen anywhere. Any spot would have been
clearly visible on the light-coloured floor. There was nothing
else to tell of the horrible crime that had been committed here,
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