| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: state, he called Dr. Boyle, and the two of them got me on my cot
and made me comfortable. My son, roused by the stir, soon joined
them, and they all tried to force me to lie still and attempt
sleep.
But there was no sleep for me. My psychological state
was very extraordinary - different from anything I had previously
suffered. After a time I insisted upon talking - nervously and
elaborately explaining my condition. I told them I had become
fatigued, and had lain down in the sand for a nap. There had,
I said, been dreams even more frightful than usual - and when
I was awaked by the sudden high wind my overwrought nerves had
Shadow out of Time |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hellenica by Xenophon: fashion. The defenders of Gergithes from their towers--which were
extraordinarily high--espied Meidias in company of the Spartan, and
abstained from shooting. And Dercylidas said: "Bid them open the
gates, Meidias, when you shall lead the way, and I will enter the
temple along with you and do sacrifice to Athena." And Meidias, though
he shrank from opening the gates, yet in terror of finding himself on
a sudden seized, reluctantly gave the order to open the gates. As soon
as he was entered in, the Spartan, still taking Meidias with him,
marched up to the citadel and there ordered the main body of his
soliders to take up their position round the walls, whilst he with
those about him did sacrifice to Athena. When the sacrifice was ended
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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 Alexandria and her Schools by Charles Kingsley: doctrine by that of her instructors and her pupils. Proclus was taught
by the men who had heard her lecture; and the golden chain of the
Platonic succession descended from her to him. His throne, however, was
at Athens, not at Alexandria. After the murder of the maiden
philosopher, Neoplatonism prudently retired to Greece. But Proclus is
so essentially the child of the Alexandrian school that we cannot pass
him over. Indeed, according to M. Cousin, as I am credibly informed, he
is the Greek philosopher; the flower and crown of all its schools; in
whom, says the learned Frenchman, "are combined, and from whom shine
forth, in no irregular or uncertain rays, Orpheus, Pythagoras, Plato,
Aristotle, Zeno, Plotinus, Porphyry, and Iamblichus;" and who "had so
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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 Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne: her dress and aspect the one appropriate charm which nothing else
in the world could have supplied. But Giovanni, out of the shadow
of his window, bent forward and shrank back, and murmured and
trembled.
"Am I awake? Have I my senses?" said he to himself. "What is this
being? Beautiful shall I call her, or inexpressibly terrible?"
Beatrice now strayed carelessly through the garden, approaching
closer beneath Giovanni's window, so that he was compelled to
thrust his head quite out of its concealment in order to gratify
the intense and painful curiosity which she excited. At this
moment there came a beautiful insect over the garden wall; it
Mosses From An Old Manse |
