| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Fall of the House of Usher by Edgar Allan Poe: modify, or perhaps to annihilate its capacity for sorrowful
impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined my horse
to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in
unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a
shudder even more thrilling than before--upon the remodelled and
inverted images of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems,
and the vacant and eye-like windows.
Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to
myself a sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher,
had been one of my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had
elapsed since our last meeting. A letter, however, had lately
The Fall of the House of Usher |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Maid Marian by Thomas Love Peacock: into the cottage.
Now raged an unequal combat, for the assailants fell two to one
on Robin, Marian, the baron, and the cottager; while the wife,
being deprived of her spit, converted every thing that was
at hand to a missile, and rained pots, pans, and pipkins on
the armed heads of the enemy. The baron raged like a tiger,
and the cottager laid about him like a thresher. One of the soldiers
struck Robin's sword from his hand and brought him on his knee,
when the boy, who had been roused by the tumult and had been
peeping through the inner door, leaped forward in his shirt,
picked up the sword and replaced it in Robin's hand, who instantly
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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 Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: fit even to be sent to development camp. The government, alarmed
at such signs of wholesale regional decadence, sent several officers
and medical experts to investigate; conducting a survey which
New England newspaper readers may still recall. It was the publicity
attending this investigation which set reporters on the track
of the Whateleys, and caused the Boston Globe and Arkham Advertiser
to print flamboyant Sunday stories of young Wilbur's precociousness,
Old Whateley's black magic, and the shelves of strange books,
the sealed second storey of the ancient farmhouse, and the weirdness
of the whole region and its hill noises. Wilbur was four and a
half then, and looked like a lad of fifteen. His lips and cheeks
The Dunwich Horror |
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 Exiles by Honore de Balzac: "A line written by you is enough!" said the Doctor. "It would give me
immortality, humanly speaking."
"Can I give what I have not?" cried the elder.
Escorted by the crowd, which followed in their footsteps, like
courtiers round a king, at a respectful distance, Godefroid, with the
old man and the Doctor, made their way to the oozy shore, where as yet
there were no houses, and where the ferryman was waiting for them. The
Doctor and the stranger were talking together, not in Latin nor in any
Gallic tongue, but in an unknown language, and very gravely. They
pointed with their hands now to heaven and now to the earth. Sigier,
to whom the paths by the river were familiar, guided the venerable
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