| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Jolly Corner by Henry James: since, if it was his other self he was running to earth, this
ineffable identity was thus in the last resort not unworthy of him.
It bristled there - somewhere near at hand, however unseen still -
as the hunted thing, even as the trodden worm of the adage must at
last bristle; and Brydon at this instant tasted probably of a
sensation more complex than had ever before found itself consistent
with sanity. It was as if it would have shamed him that a
character so associated with his own should triumphantly succeed in
just skulking, should to the end not risk the open; so that the
drop of this danger was, on the spot, a great lift of the whole
situation. Yet with another rare shift of the same subtlety he was
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: when our spades struck wood. When the pine box was fully uncovered,
West scrambled down and removed the lid, dragging out and propping
up the contents. I reached down and hauled the contents out of
the grave, and then both toiled hard to restore the spot to its
former appearance. The affair made us rather nervous, especially
the stiff form and vacant face of our first trophy, but we managed
to remove all traces of our visit. When we had patted down the
last shovelful of earth, we put the specimen in a canvas sack
and set out for the old Chapman place beyond Meadow Hill.
On
an improvised dissecting-table in the old farmhouse, by the light
Herbert West: Reanimator |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: Some little time afterwards I went to see that sister of mine. The
first thing she said to me, 'I wouldn't have recognized you, Rita,'
and I said, 'What a funny dress you have, Therese, more fit for the
portress of a convent than for this house.' - 'Yes,' she said, 'and
unless you give this house to me, Rita, I will go back to our
country. I will have nothing to do with your life, Rita. Your
life is no secret for me.'
"I was going from room to room and Therese was following me. 'I
don't know that my life is a secret to anybody,' I said to her,
'but how do you know anything about it?' And then she told me that
it was through a cousin of ours, that horrid wretch of a boy, you
The Arrow of Gold |
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 The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: the blood royal. With that I assumed a great air of authority,
and demanded who employ'd him, or how he came there? Why, I was
sent, sir, by the Company of Undertakers, says he, and they were
employed by the honest gentleman, who is executor to the good
Doctor departed; and our rascally porter, I believe, is fallen
fast asleep with the black cloth and sconces, or he had been
here, and we might have been tacking up by this time. Sir, says
I, pray be advis'd by a friend, and make the best of your speed
out of my doors, for I hear my wife's voice, (which by the by, is
pretty distinguishable) and in that corner of the room stands a
good cudgel, which somebody has felt e're now; if that light in
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