| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: to dew.'
That Hallowe'en the hill noises sounded louder than
ever, and fire burned on Sentinel Hill as usual; but people paid
more attention to the rhythmical screaming of vast flocks of unnaturally
belated whippoorwills which seemed to be assembled near the unlighted
Whateley farmhouse. After midnight their shrill notes burst into
a kind of pandemoniac cachinnation which filled all the countryside,
and not until dawn did they finally quiet down. Then they vanished,
hurrying southward where they were fully a month overdue. What
this meant, no one could quite be certain till later. None of
the countryfolk seemed to have died - but poor Lavinia Whateley,
The Dunwich Horror |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Facino Cane by Honore de Balzac: use it, that is all. But this it behooves you to know, that in those
days I began to resolve the heterogeneous mass known as the People
into its elements, and to evaluate its good and bad qualities. Even
then I realized the possibilities of my suburb, that hotbed of
revolution in which heroes, inventors, and practical men of science,
rogues and scoundrels, virtues and vices, were all packed together by
poverty, stifled by necessity, drowned in drink, and consumed by
ardent spirits.
You would not imagine how many adventures, how many tragedies, lie
buried away out of sight in that Dolorous City; how much horror and
beauty lurks there. No imagination can reach the Truth, no one can go
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