| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: about the time of its beginning, but had remained for additional
work at the summer school, so that we were in Arkham when it broke
with full daemoniac fury upon the town. Though not as yet licenced
physicians, we now had our degrees, and were pressed frantically
into public service as the numbers of the stricken grew. The situation
was almost past management, and deaths ensued too frequently for
the local undertakers fully to handle. Burials without embalming
were made in rapid succession, and even the Christchurch Cemetery
receiving tomb was crammed with coffins of the unembalmed dead.
This circumstance was not without effect on West, who thought
often of the irony of the situation -- so many fresh specimens,
Herbert West: Reanimator |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Dracula by Bram Stoker: which will bring you to Paddington by 2:35. Do not answer this,
as I shall take it that, if I do not hear, you will
come to breakfast.
"Believe me,
"Your faithful and grateful friend,
"Mina Harker."
JONATHAN HARKER'S JOURNAL
26 September.--I thought never to write in this diary again,
but the time has come. When I got home last night Mina
had supper ready, and when we had supped she told me of Van
Helsing's visit, and of her having given him the two diaries
Dracula |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini: "There is Jacques," she explained, indicating the footman who had
just assisted them to alight.
Rougane departed confident of soon returning, leaving them to await
him with the same confidence. But the hours succeeded one another,
the night closed in, bedtime came, and still there was no sign of
his return.
They waited until midnight, each pretending for the other's sake
to a confidence fully sustained, each invaded by vague premonitions
of evil, yet beguiling the time by playing tric-trac in the great
salon, as if they had not a single anxious thought between them.
At last on the stroke of midnight, madame sighed and rose.
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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 Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: The lady held Bessie Bell's hand very hard, and she said--softly, as
if she, too, was talking her thinking aloud:
``Yes, there was a window like that in the world, for just outside
the nursery-window there grew a Pride of China Tree, and it filled
all the window with small, green, moving leaves--''
Then Bessie Bell just let the lady draw her up close, and she leaned
up against the lady.
She felt so happy now, for she knew she had found the Wisest Woman
in the world, for this lady knew the things that little girls only
could remember. If she had thought about it she would have told the
lady about the tiny apple-trees with the very, very small apples on
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