| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lair of the White Worm by Bram Stoker: sound of woodwork, broken or thrown about, mixed with a quick scream
so appalling that Adam, stout of heart as he undoubtedly was, felt
his blood turn into ice. Instinctively, despite the danger and
their consciousness of it, husband and wife took hands and listened,
trembling. Something was going on close to them, mysterious,
terrible, deadly! The shrieks continued, though less sharp in
sound, as though muffled. In the midst of them was a terrific
explosion, seemingly from deep in the earth.
The flames from Castra Regis and from Diana's Grove made all around
almost as light as day, and now that the lightning had ceased to
flash, their eyes, unblinded, were able to judge both perspective
Lair of the White Worm |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In a German Pension by Katherine Mansfield: leaned his elbows on the padded arms and gave himself up, for once, to idle
dreaming. "A boy? Yes, it was bound to be a boy this time..." "What's
your family, Binzer?" "Oh, I've two girls and a boy!" A very nice little
number. Of course he was the last man to have a favourite child, but a man
needed a son. "I'm working up the business for my son! Binzer & Son! It
would mean living very tight for the next ten years, cutting expenses as
fine as possible; and then--"
A tremendous gust of wind sprang upon the house, seized it, shook it,
dropped, only to grip the more tightly. The waves swelled up along the
breakwater and were whipped with broken foam. Over the white sky flew
tattered streamers of grey cloud.
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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 The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: My Lord?"
"Let him enter," said De Montfort, "but no knavery,
now, we are a thousand men here, well armed and
ready fighters."
Shandy returned to his master with the reply, and
together Norman of Torn and Bertrade de Montfort
clattered across the drawbridge beneath the portcullis
of the castle of the Earl of Leicester, brother-in-law of
Henry III of England.
The girl was still wrapped in the great cloak of her
protector, for it had been raining, so that she rode
The Outlaw of Torn |
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 Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: that you actually don't know what the man died of?' 'Pardon me,'
he replied, 'I know perfectly well what caused death. Blank
died of fright, of sheer, awful terror; I never saw features so
hideously contorted in the entire course of my practice, and I
have seen the faces of a whole host of dead.' The doctor was
usually a cool customer enough, and a certain vehemence in his
manner struck me, but I couldn't get anything more out of him.
I suppose the Treasury didn't see their way to prosecuting the
Herberts for frightening a man to death; at any rate, nothing
was done, and the case dropped out of men's minds. Do you
happen to know anything of Herbert?"
The Great God Pan |
