| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Madame Firmiani by Honore de Balzac: that's useless, and the sacraments cost so much in these days. Come,
speak out, have you ruined yourself for her?"
"Yes, uncle."
"Ha! the jade! I'd have wagered it. In my time the women of the court
were cleverer at ruining a man than the courtesans of to-day; but this
one--I recognized her!--it is a bit of the last century."
"Uncle," said Octave, with a manner that was tender and grave, "you
are totally mistaken. Madame Firmiani deserves your esteem, and all
the adoration the world gives her."
"Youth, youth! always the same!" cried Monsieur de Bourbonne. "Well,
go on; tell me the same old story. But please remember that my
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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 At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: architecture of that nameless geologic past. The inner partitions
were less massive than the outer walls, but on the lower levels
were excellently preserved. Labyrinthine complexity, involving
curiously irregular difference in floor levels, characterized
the entire arrangement; and we should certainly have been lost
at the very outset but for the trail of torn paper left behind
us. We decided to explore the more decrepit upper parts first
of all, hence climbed aloft in the maze for a distance of some
one hundred feet, to where the topmost tier of chambers yawned
snowily and ruinously open to the polar sky. Ascent was effected
over the steep, transversely ribbed stone ramps or inclined planes
At the Mountains of Madness |
