| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: as Nayland Smith--lean, agile, bronzed with the suns of Burma, was symbolic
of the clean British efficiency which sought to combat the insidious enemy.
"One thing is evident," said Smith: "no one in the house, Strozza excepted,
knew that Sir Lionel was absent."
"How do you arrive at that?" asked Weymouth.
"The servants, in the hall, are bewailing him as dead.
If they had seen him go out they would know that it must
be someone else who lies here."
"What about the Chinaman?"
"Since there is no other means of entrance to the conservatory save
through the study, Kwee must have hidden himself there at some time
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: skeleton-man, i.e., death [death the all-subduer, the teacher of
wicked children]. For on this God insists peremptorily: Either if you
obey Him rendering love and service, He will reward you abundantly with
all good, or if you offend Him, He will send upon you both death and
the hangman.
Whence come so many knaves that must daily be hanged, beheaded, broken
upon the wheel, but from disobedience [to parents], because they will
not submit to discipline in kindness, so that, by the punishment of
God, they bring it about that we behold their misfortune and grief? For
it seldom happens that such perverse people die a natural or timely
death.
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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 Sons of the Soil by Honore de Balzac: master. On either side of the railing is a ha-ha, the edges of which
bristle with angry spikes,--regular porcupines in metal. The railing
is closed at both ends by two porter's-lodges, like those of the
palace at Versailles, and the gateway is surmounted by colossal vases.
The gold of the arabesques is ruddy, for rust has added its tints, but
this entrance, called "the gate of the Avenue," which plainly shows
the hand of the Great Dauphin (to whom, indeed, Les Aigues owes it),
seems to me none the less beautiful for that. At the end of each ha-ha
the walls of the park, built of rough-hewn stone, begin. These stones,
set in a mortar made of reddish earth, display their variegated
colors, the warm yellows of the silex, the white of the lime
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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 A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsay: "The devil here is called Krag," went on Maskull, peering into his
face.
"As long as pleasure is worshiped, Krag will always be the devil."
"Here we are, talking face to face, two men together.... What am I to
believe of you?"
"Believe your senses. The real devil is Crystalman."
They continued descending the landslip. The sun's rays had grown
insufferably hot. In front of them, down below in the far distance,
Maskull saw water and land intermingled. It appeared that they were
travelling toward a lake district.
"What have you and Nightspore been doing during the last four days,
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