| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: had lapsed suddenly into delirium! And what of this storm of April
2nd - the date on which all dreams of the dank city ceased, and
Wilcox emerged unharmed from the bondage of strange fever? What
of all this - and of those hints of old Castro about the sunken,
star-born Old Ones and their coming reign; their faithful cult
and their mastery of dreams? Was I tottering on the brink of cosmic
horrors beyond man's power to bear? If so, they must be horrors
of the mind alone, for in some way the second of April had put
a stop to whatever monstrous menace had begun its siege of mankind's
soul.
That evening, after a day of hurried cabling and arranging,
Call of Cthulhu |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Poems by Oscar Wilde: Than any painted angel, could we see
The God that is within us! The old Greek serenity
Which curbs the passion of that level line
Of marble youths, who with untroubled eyes
And chastened limbs ride round Athena's shrine
And mirror her divine economies,
And balanced symmetry of what in man
Would else wage ceaseless warfare, - this at least within the span
Between our mother's kisses and the grave
Might so inform our lives, that we could win
Such mighty empires that from her cave
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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 Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy: "When Sasha arrived with her girl friend, they set to work
studying this map of Russia and planning out a route to the
Caucasus. Lyovótchka sat there thoughtful and melancholy.
"'Never mind, Papa; it'll be all right,' said Sasha, trying to
encourage him.
"'Ah, you women, you women!' answered her father, bitterly.
'How can it ever be all right?'
"I so much hoped that he would settle down here; it would just
have suited him. And it was his own idea, too; he had even taken
a cottage in the village," Aunt Masha sadly recalled.
"When he left me to go back to the hotel where he was staying,
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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 Lesson of the Master by Henry James: Quite late in the week she wrote to him that she was not to go into
the country - it had only just been settled. Her father, she
added, would never settle anything, but put it all on her. She
felt her responsibility - she had to - and since she was forced
this was the way she had decided. She mentioned no reasons, which
gave our friend all the clearer field for bold conjecture about
them. In Manchester Square on this second Sunday he esteemed his
fortune less good, for she had three or four other visitors. But
there were three or four compensations; perhaps the greatest of
which was that, learning how her father had after all, at the last
hour, gone out of town alone, the bold conjecture I just now spoke
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