| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac: last hour has come."
Hearing the guttural rattle that accompanied these words, the warder
bowed and went. Jacques Collin clung wildly to this hope; but when he
saw the doctor and the governor come in together, he perceived that
the attempt was abortive, and coolly awaited the upshot of the visit,
holding out his wrist for the doctor to feel his pulse.
"The Abbe is feverish," said the doctor to Monsieur Gault, "but it is
the type of fever we always find in inculpated prisoners--and to me,"
he added, in the governor's ear, "it is always a sign of some degree
of guilt."
Just then the governor, to whom the public prosecutor had intrusted
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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 Riverman by Stewart Edward White: himself of a courtier, armed the man and shut him in a dark room.
The victim knew he was to fight something, but whence it was to
come, when, or of what nature he was unable to guess. In the event,
while groping tense for an enemy, he fell under the fatal fumes of
noxious gases.
>From the moment Orde completed the secret purchase of the California
timber lands from Trace, he became an unwitting participant in one
of the strangest duels known to business history. Newmark opposed
to him all the subtleties, all the ruses and expedients to which his
position lent itself. Orde, sublimely unconscious, deployed the
magnificent resources of strength, energy, organisation, and
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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 Country Doctor by Honore de Balzac: And yet there are folk who, never having measured the excess of the
people's sufferings, accuse the people of excess in the day of their
vengeance! When a government has done more harm than good to
individuals, its further existence depends on the merest accident, the
masses square the account after their fashion by upsetting it. A
statesman ought always to imagine Justice with the poor at her feet,
for justice was only invented for the poor."
When they had come within the compass of the township, Benassis saw
two people walking along the road in front of them, and turned to his
companion, who had been absorbed for some time in thought.
"You have seen a veteran soldier resigned to his life of wretchedness,
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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 Miracle Mongers and Their Methods by Harry Houdini: not burn the hair.
Being thus far satisfied, the Professor
applied hard soap to his tongue until it
became insensible to the heat of the iron;
and having placed an ointment composed
of soap mixed with a solution of alum
upon it, burning oil did not burn it; while
the oil remained on the tongue a slight
hissing was heard, similar to that of hot
iron when thrust into water; the oil soon
cooled and might then be swallowed without
Miracle Mongers and Their Methods |
