| 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: of conceivable yet virtually impossible eventualities he often
shivered beneath his usual stolidity.
West had soon learned
that absolute freshness was the prime requisite for useful specimens,
and had accordingly resorted to frightful and unnatural expedients
in body-snatching. In college, and during our early practice together
in the factory town of Bolton, my attitude toward him had been
largely one of fascinated admiration; but as his boldness in methods
grew, I began to develop a gnawing fear. I did not like the way
he looked at healthy living bodies; and then there came a nightmarish
session in the cellar laboratory when I learned that a certain
Herbert West: Reanimator |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: sight of her. Thus Lancelot drove him back and forth repeatedly
in whatever direction he pleased, always stopping before the
Queen, his lady, who had kindled the flame which compels him to
fix his gaze upon her. And this same flame so stirred him
against Meleagant that he was enabled to lead and drive him
wherever he pleased. In spite of himself he drives him on like a
blind man or a man with a wooden leg. The king sees his son so
hard pressed that he is sorry for him and he pities him, and he
will not deny him aid and assistance if possible; but if he
wishes to proceed courteously, he must first beg the Queen's
permission. So he began to say to her: "Lady, since I have had
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: Vincula.
``She was just old enough to be put to the table in a high chair,''
said the lady. ``Ah, how she did laugh and crow and jump when her
father took the peacock-feather-fly-brush from the maid, and waved
it in front of her! She would seize the ends of the feathers, and
laugh and crow louder than ever, and hide her laughing little face
deep into the feathers--Ah me--''
But Bessie Bell said nothing, nor remembered anything. For she did
not know that the lady was talking of something green, and blue, and
soft, and brown.
And it was Sister Justina, and not Sister Helen Vincula, who had
|
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 Weir of Hermiston by Robert Louis Stevenson: of the insignificant.
"Her and me were never cut out for one another," he remarked at last.
"It was a daft-like marriage." And then, with a most unusual gentleness
of tone, "Puir bitch," said he, "puir bitch!" Then suddenly: "Where's
Erchie?"
Kirstie had decoyed him to her room and given him "a jeely-piece."
"Ye have some kind of gumption, too," observed the judge, and considered
his housekeeper grimly. "When all's said," he added, "I micht have done
waur - I micht have been marriet upon a skirting Jezebel like you!"
"There's naebody thinking of you, Hermiston!" cried the offended woman.
"We think of her that's out of her sorrows. And could SHE have done
|
