| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: to concern itself with the lofty interests of eternal justice,''
does not concern itself with the victims of the crime, leaving the
indemnification to their prosaic ``private interest,'' and to a
separate invocation of justice. And then the State, in the name
of eternal justice, exacts from the criminal, in the shape of a
fine payable into the public treasury, a compensation for its own
defence--which it does not secure, even when the crime is only a
trespass upon private property!
Thus the State, which cannot prevent crime, and can only repress
it in a small number of cases, and which fails accordingly
in its first duty, for which the citizens pay it their taxes,
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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 Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: hung so fast, that the mule drew him out of the water; and by that
accident, the owner of the mule angled out the Pike. And the same
Gesner observes, that a maid in Poland had a Pike bit her by the foot, as
she was washing clothes in a pond. And I have heard the like of a
woman in Killingworth pond, not far from Coventry. But I have been
assured by my friend Mr. Segrave, of whom I spake to you formerly,
that keeps tame Otters, that he hath known a Pike, in extreme hunger,
fight with one of his Otters for a Carp that the Otter had caught, and
was then bringing out of the water. I have told you who relate these
things; and tell you they are persons of credit; and shall conclude this
observation, by telling you, what a wise man has observed, " It is a hard
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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 Brother of Daphne by Dornford Yates: and half the red mouth. Her lips were parted and she was smiling
a little.
"If I didn't love your mouth when you smile, I should be inclined
to suggest that it was nothing to laugh about," I said
reprovingly.
The grey eye met mine. Then she laid a small cool hand firmly on
my chin and pushed it round and away.
"Otherwise I can't see properly," she explained. Then, "I
believe I can dig it out," she said quietly.
I broke away at that and looked round. She was quite serious and
began to unfasten a gold safety-pin.
The Brother of Daphne |
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 When the World Shook by H. Rider Haggard: in my pocket. Thus they were preserved. Everything else went when
the Rock of Offerings and the cave mouth sank beneath the waters
of the lake.
This may have happened either in the earth tremor, which no
doubt was caused by the advance of the terrific world-balance, or
when the electric power, though diffused and turned by Yva's
insulated body, struck the great gyroscope's travelling foot with
sufficient strength, not to shift it indeed on to the right-hand
path as Oro had designed, but still to cause it to stagger and
even perhaps to halt for the fraction of a second. Even this
pause may have been enough to cause convulsions of the earth
When the World Shook |
