| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Several Works by Edgar Allan Poe: a ruddier light through the blood-coloured panes; and the blackness
of the sable drapery appals; and to him whose foot falls upon the
sable carpet, there comes from the near clock of ebony a muffled
peal more solemnly emphatic than any which reaches their ears
who indulged in the more remote gaieties of the other apartments.
But these other apartments were densely crowded, and in them
beat feverishly the heart of life. And the revel went whirlingly
on, until at length there commenced the sounding of midnight upon
the clock. And then the music ceased, as I have told; and the
evolutions of the waltzers were quieted; and there was an uneasy
cessation of all things as before. But now there were twelve
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: Switzerland, and it was polished by the glacier ice. The glacier
melted and shrank this last hot summer farther back than it had
done for many years, and left bare sheets of rock, which it had
been scraping at for ages, with all the marks fresh upon them.
And that bit was broken off and brought to me, who never saw a
glacier myself, to show me how the marks which the ice makes in
Switzerland are exactly the same as those which the ice has made
in Snowdon and in the Highlands, and many another place where I
have traced them, and written a little, too, about them in years
gone by. And so I treasure this, as a sign that Madam How's ways
do not change nor her laws become broken; that, as that great
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: his tale to Mrs Corey.
'Up thar in the rud beyont the glen,
Mis' Corey - they's suthin' ben thar! It smells like thunder,
an' all the bushes an' little trees is pushed back from the rud
like they'd a haouse ben moved along of it. An' that ain't the
wust, nuther. They's prints in the rud, Mis' Corey - great raound
prints as big as barrel-heads, all sunk dawon deep like a elephant
had ben along, only they's a sight more nor four feet could make!
I looked at one or two afore I run, an' I see every one was covered
with lines spreadin' aout from one place, like as if big palm-leaf
fans - twict or three times as big as any they is - hed of ben
The Dunwich Horror |
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 Memoir of Fleeming Jenkin by Robert Louis Stevenson: while he wrote, harassed by responsibility, stinted in sleep and
often struggling with the prostration of sea-sickness. To this
last enemy, which he never overcame, I have omitted, in my search
after condensation, a good many references; if they were all left,
such was the man's temper, they would not represent one hundredth
part of what he suffered, for he was never given to complaint. But
indeed he had met this ugly trifle, as he met every thwart
circumstance of life, with a certain pleasure of pugnacity; and
suffered it not to check him, whether in the exercise of his
profession or the pursuit of amusement.
I.
|
