| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: the apartment of a magistrate, for instance, costing three thousand
francs a year?
"My father," he said in conclusion, "allows me three thousand francs a
year, and that, with my salary, barely allows me to maintain my rank."
When the young substitute rode boldly into this bog-hole, the
Provencal, who had slyly enticed him there, exchanged, without being
observed, a wink with Dutocq, who was just then waiting for the place
of a player at bouillotte.
"There is such a demand for offices," remarked the latter, "that they
talk of creating two justices of the peace to each arrondissement in
order to make a dozen new clerkships. As if they could interfere with
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: attending the formation of the ice sheet at this point would have
to wait for later solution. It had not, very plainly, been a grinding
drive. Perhaps the pressure of accumulated snows had been responsible,
and perhaps some flood from the river, or from the bursting of
some ancient glacial dam in the great range, had helped to create
the special state now observable. Imagination could conceive almost
anything in connection with this place.
VI
It would be cumbrous
to give a detailed, consecutive account of our wanderings inside
that cavernous, aeon-dead honeycomb of primal masonry - that monstrous
At the Mountains of Madness |
