| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salammbo by Gustave Flaubert: them to defend themselves. It was a kind of pyramid, which grew larger
by degrees.
Soon there were only fifty, then only twenty, only three, and lastly
only two--a Samnite armed with an axe, and Matho who still had his
sword.
The Samnite with bent hams swept his axe alternately to the right and
left, at the same time warning Matho of the blows that were being
aimed at him. "Master, this way! that way! stoop down!"
Matho had lost his shoulder-pieces, his helmet, his cuirass; he was
completely naked, and more livid than the dead, with his hair quite
erect, and two patches of foam at the corners of his lips,--and his
Salammbo |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: of the great ice barrier, rising perpendicularly to a height of
two hundred feet like the rocky cliffs of Quebec, and marking
the end of southward navigation. In the afternoon we entered McMurdo
Sound and stood off the coast in the lee of smoking Mt. Erebus.
The scoriac peak towered up some twelve thousand, seven hundred
feet against the eastern sky, like a Japanese print of the sacred
Fujiyama, while beyond it rose the white, ghostlike height of
Mt. Terror, ten thousand, nine hundred feet in altitude, and now
extinct as a volcano.
Puffs of smoke from Erebus came intermittently,
and one of the graduate assistants - a brilliant young fellow
At the Mountains of Madness |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen: new shadow, which lay like a poodle-dog at his feet. Now this was perhaps from
arrogance; and the shadow on the ground kept itself so still and quiet, that
it might hear all that passed: it wished to know how it could get free, and
work its way up, so as to become its own master.
"Do you know who lived in our opposite neighbor's house?" said the shadow. "It
was the most charming of all beings, it was Poesy! I was there for three
weeks, and that has as much effect as if one had lived three thousand years,
and read all that was composed and written; that is what I say, and it is
right. I have seen everything and I know everything!"
"Poesy!" cried the learned man. "Yes, yes, she often dwells a recluse in
large cities! Poesy! Yes, I have seen her--a single short moment, but sleep
Fairy Tales |
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 Tom Grogan by F. Hopkinson Smith: recording. The first four were from parties in outside villages.
Then came McGaw's:--
"Forty-nine cents for coal, etc."
So far he was lowest. Quigg twisted his hat nervously, and
McGaw's coarse face grew red and white by turns.
Tom's bid was the last.
"Thomas Grogan, Rockville, S.I., thirty-eight cents for coal,
etc."
"Gentlemen," said Mr. Schwartz, quietly, "Thomas Grogan gets the
hauling."
VIII
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