| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: rusting of their former and probably metallic fixtures and fastenings.
After a time we came across a row of windows - in the bulges
of a colossal five-edged cone of undamaged apex - which led into
a vast, well-preserved room with stone flooring; but these were
too high in the room to permit descent without a rope. We had
a rope with us, but did not wish to bother with this twenty-foot
drop unless obliged to-especially in this thin plateau air where
great demands were made upon the heart action. This enormous room
was probably a hall or concourse of some sort, and our electric
torches showed bold, distinct, and potentially startling sculptures
arranged round the walls in broad, horizontal bands separated
At the Mountains of Madness |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: Shakespeare, any more than could Sir Joshua the method of
Gainsborough. Bad artists always admire each other's work. They
call it being large-minded and free from prejudice. But a truly
great artist cannot conceive of life being shown, or beauty
fashioned, under any conditions other than those that he has
selected. Creation employs all its critical faculty within its own
sphere. It may not use it in the sphere that belongs to others.
It is exactly because a man cannot do a thing that he is the proper
judge of it.
ERNEST. Do you really mean that?
GILBERT. Yes, for creation limits, while contemplation widens, the
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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 A Man of Business by Honore de Balzac: long as the flight lasts; but quite another to be in office. Three
months later, he was obliged to send in his resignation. Had he not
taken it into his head to attempt to win popularity? Still, as he had
done nothing as yet to imperil his title of 'courageous Cerizet,' the
Government proposed by way of compensation that he should manage a
newspaper; nominally an Opposition newspaper, but Ministerialist /in
petto/. So the fall of this noble nature was really due to the
Government. To Cerizet, as manager of the paper, it was rather too
evident that he was as a bird perched on a rotten bough; and then it
was that he promoted that nice little joint-stock company, and thereby
secured a couple of years in prison; he was caught, while more
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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 The Ball at Sceaux by Honore de Balzac: Lieutenant-General de Fontaine married Mademoiselle Mongenod, the
daughter of a rich banker; the President very sensibly found a wife in
a young lady whose father, twice or thrice a millionaire, had traded
in salt; and the third brother, faithful to his plebeian doctrines,
married Mademoiselle Grossetete, the only daughter of the Receiver-
General at Bourges. The three sisters-in-law and the two brothers-in-
law found the high sphere of political bigwigs, and the drawing-rooms
of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, so full of charm and of personal
advantages, that they united in forming a little court round the
overbearing Emilie. This treaty between interest and pride was not,
however, so firmly cemented but that the young despot was, not
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