| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Second Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by
the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil
shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn by the lash
shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said
three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, "The
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."
With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on
to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation's wounds;
to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow,
and his orphan--to do all which may achieve and cherish a just
Second Inaugural Address |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson: senses. "Ah," he cried "dear Madame von Rosen, it is not possible -
it cannot be I must hear it from your lips. My wife is a poor girl
misled, she is only silly, she is not cruel." "MON PRINCE," said I,
"a girl - and therefore cruel; youth kills flies." - He had such
pain to understand it!'
'Madame von Rosen,' said the Princess, in most steadfast tones, but
with a rose of anger in her face, 'who sent you here, and for what
purpose? Tell your errand.'
'O, madam, I believe you understand me very well,' returned von
Rosen. 'I have not your philosophy. I wear my heart upon my
sleeve, excuse the indecency! It is a very little one,' she
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Forged Coupon by Leo Tolstoy: light, and evidently catching the vermin on it.
Another man, aged and white as snow, stood with
his profile turned towards the door. He was
praying, crossing himself, and bowing low, ap-
parently so absorbed in his devotions as to be
oblivious of all around him.
"I see--this is a prison," thought the young
Tsar. "They certainly deserve pity. It is a
dreadful life. But it cannot be helped. It is
their own fault."
But this thought had hardly come into his
The Forged Coupon |
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 Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: illness and outbreaks of group folly or mania in the spring of
1925.
The first half of the principal manuscript told a very
particular tale. It appears that on March 1st, 1925, a thin, dark
young man of neurotic and excited aspect had called upon Professor
Angell bearing the singular clay bas-relief, which was then exceedingly
damp and fresh. His card bore the name of Henry Anthony Wilcox,
and my uncle had recognized him as the youngest son of an excellent
family slightly known to him, who had latterly been studying sculpture
at the Rhode Island School of Design and living alone at the Fleur-de-Lys
Building near that institution. Wilcox was a precocious youth
Call of Cthulhu |
