| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Timaeus by Plato: phenomena some physician or philosopher who was able to see the one in many
has given the name of bile. The various kinds of bile have names answering
to their colours. Lymph or serum is of two kinds: first, the whey of
blood, which is gentle; secondly, the secretion of dark and bitter bile,
which, when mingled under the influence of heat with salt, is malignant and
is called acid phlegm. There is also white phlegm, formed by the
decomposition of young and tender flesh, and covered with little bubbles,
separately invisible, but becoming visible when collected. The water of
tears and perspiration and similar substances is also the watery part of
fresh phlegm. All these humours become sources of disease when the blood
is replenished in irregular ways and not by food or drink. The danger,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: the townsfolk dreaded to see it dock. The mouths of the men who
came from it to trade were too wide, and the way their turbans
were humped up in two points above their foreheads was in especially
bad taste. And their shoes were the shortest and queerest ever
seen in the Six Kingdoms. But worst of all was the matter of the
unseen rowers. Those three banks of oars moved too briskly and
accurately and vigorously to be comfortable, and it was not right
for a ship to stay in port for weeks while the merchants traded,
yet to give no glimpse of its crew. It was not fair to the tavern-keepers
of Dylath-Leen, or to the grocers and butchers, either; for not
a scrap of provisions was ever sent aboard. The merchants took
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
