| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: saw many low, broad, round cottages in fields of grotesque whitish
fungi. He noticed that these cottages had no windows, and thought
that their shape suggested the huts of Esquimaux. Then he glimpsed
the oily waves of a sluggish sea, and knew that the voyage was
once more to be by water - or at least through some liquid. The
galley struck the surface with a peculiar sound, and the odd elastic
way the waves received it was very perplexing to Carter.
They
now slid along at great speed, once passing and hailing another
galley of kindred form, but generally seeing nothing but that
curious sea and a sky that was black and star-strewn even though
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from War and the Future by H. G. Wells: climb it with its snout. It rears over the obstacle, it raises
its straining belly, it overhangs more and more, and at last
topples forward; it sways upon the heap and then goes plunging
downwards, sticking out the weak counterpoise of its wheeled
tail. If it comes to a house or a tree or a wall or such-like
obstruction it rams against it so as to bring all its weight to
bear upon it--it weighs /some/ tons--and then climbs over
the debris. I saw it, and incredulous soldiers of experience
watched it at the same time, cross trenches and wallow amazingly
through muddy exaggerations of small holes. Then I repeated the
tour inside.
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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 From London to Land's End by Daniel Defoe: maid; less could not answer the preparations they would be obliged
to make, and yet work hard themselves also. By the help of these
they would, with good management, soon get so much of their land
cured, fenced-off, ploughed, and sowed as should yield them a
sufficiency of corn and kitchen stuff the very first year, both for
horse-meat, hog-meat, food for the family, and some to carry to
market, too, by which to bring in money to go farther on, as above.
At the first entrance they were to have the tents allowed them to
live in, which they then had from the Tower; but as soon as leisure
and conveniences admitted, every farmer was obliged to begin to
build him a farm-house, which he would do gradually, some and some,
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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 Faraday as a Discoverer by John Tyndall: While restudying the Experimental Researches with reference to the
present memoir, the conversation with Faraday here alluded to came
to my recollection, and I sought to ascertain the period when the
question, 'wealth or science,' had presented itself with such
emphasis to his mind. I fixed upon the year 1831 or 1832, for it
seemed beyond the range of human power to pursue science as he had
done during the subsequent years, and to pursue commercial work at
the same time. To test this conclusion I asked permission to see
his accounts, and on my own responsibility, I will state the result.
In 1832, his professional business income, instead of rising to
5000L., or more, fell from 1090L. 4s. to 155L. 9s. From this it
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