| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Ebb-Tide by Stevenson & Osbourne: respect. And to Herrick, who was conscious of talents and
acquirements, who looked down upon those humble duties in
which he was found wanting, the pain was the more exquisite.
Early in his fall, he had ceased to be able to make remittances;
shortly after, having nothing but failure to communicate, he
ceased writing home; and about a year before this tale begins,
turned suddenly upon the streets of San Francisco by a vulgar
and infuriated German Jew, he had broken the last bonds of
self-respect, and upon a sudden Impulse, changed his name and
invested his last dollar in a passage on the mail brigantine, the
City of Papeete. With what expectation he had trimmed his flight
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: me, and at times I had visions of personal fame from researches
into its origin and connexions. I visited New Orleans, talked
with Legrasse and others of that old-time raiding-party, saw the
frightful image, and even questioned such of the mongrel prisoners
as still survived. Old Castro, unfortunately, had been dead for
some years. What I now heard so graphically at first-hand, though
it was really no more than a detailed confirmation of what my
uncle had written, excited me afresh; for I felt sure that I was
on the track of a very real, very secret, and very ancient religion
whose discovery would make me an anthropologist of note. My attitude
was still one of absolute materialism, as l wish it still were,
Call of Cthulhu |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: improving conversation of those who have neither the wit to
exaggerate nor the genius to romance, tired of the intelligent
person whose reminiscences are always based upon memory, whose
statements are invariably limited by probability, and who is at any
time liable to be corroborated by the merest Philistine who happens
to be present, Society sooner or later must return to its lost
leader, the cultured and fascinating liar. Who he was who first,
without ever having gone out to the rude chase, told the wandering
cavemen at sunset how he had dragged the Megatherium from the
purple darkness of its jasper cave, or slain the Mammoth in single
combat and brought back its gilded tusks, we cannot tell, and not
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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 Tattine by Ruth Ogden [Mrs. Charles W. Ide]: live-stock, and although the whole day was delightful, there was all the while
an almost impatient looking forward to the supreme moment when they should
start for home with those beautiful geese in their keeping. And at last it
came.
"I wonder if my goose will be a little lonely," said Tattine, as they all
stood about, watching Patrick nail on the laths.
"Faith and it will thin," said Mrs. Kirk. "It never came to my moind that they
wouldn't all three be together. Here's little Grey-wing to keep Blue-ribbon
company," and Mrs. Kirk seized one of the smaller geese that happened to be
near her, and squeezed it into the cage through the small opening that was
left.
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