| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lock and Key Library by Julian Hawthorne, Ed.: its walls sweat, and its floors quiver, while you tread them."
. . . . .
The conclusion of this extraordinary manuscript was in such a
state, that, in fifteen moldy and crumbling pages, Melmoth could
hardly make out that number of lines. No antiquarian, unfolding
with trembling hand the calcined leaves of an Herculaneum
manuscript, and hoping to discover some lost lines of the Aeneis in
Virgil's own autograph, or at least some unutterable abomination of
Petronius or Martial, happily elucidatory of the mysteries of the
Spintriae, or the orgies of the Phallic worshipers, ever pored with
more luckless diligence, or shook a head of more hopeless
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Paradise Lost by John Milton: From me some plume, that thy success may show
Destruction to the rest: This pause between,
(Unanswered lest thou boast) to let thee know,
At first I thought that Liberty and Heaven
To heavenly souls had been all one; but now
I see that most through sloth had rather serve,
Ministring Spirits, trained up in feast and song!
Such hast thou armed, the minstrelsy of Heaven,
Servility with freedom to contend,
As both their deeds compared this day shall prove.
To whom in brief thus Abdiel stern replied.
Paradise Lost |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Virginian by Owen Wister: spell so correct, maybe."
"Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Taylor--"
"I can't wait, deary. Since the roughness looks bigger to you
than the diamond, you had better go back to Vermont. I expect
you'll find better grammar there, deary."
The good dame stalked out, and across to her own cabin, and left
the angry girl among her boxes. It was in vain she fell to work
upon them. Presently something had to be done over again, and
when it was the box held several chattels less than before the
readjustment. She played a sort of desperate dominos to fit these
objects in the space, but here were a paper-weight, a portfolio,
The Virginian |
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 Dynamiter by Robert Louis Stevenson and Fanny Van De Grift Stevenson: moment the camp was afoot. With cries that were scarce
human, stumbling, falling and throwing each other down, these
starving people rushed upon the quarry; and before my father,
climbing down by the ledge, had time to reach the level of
the stream, many were already satisfying their hunger on the
raw flesh, and a fire was being built by the more dainty.
His arrival was for some time unremarked. He stood in the
midst of these tottering and clay-faced marionettes; he was
surrounded by their cries; but their whole soul was fixed on
the dead carcass; even those who were too weak to move, lay,
half-turned over, with their eyes riveted upon the bear; and
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