| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Sportsman by Xenophon: big haye nets round the first one and then the other victim (precisely
as in the case of one of those black thawed patches above named), so
as to enclose within the toils whatever the creature is resting
on.[12] As soon as the nets are posted, up he must go and start her.
If she contrive to extricate herself from the nets,[13] he must after
her, following her tracks; and presently he will find himself at a
second similar piece of ground (unless, as is not improbable, she
smothers herself in the snow beforehand).[14] Accordingly he must
discover where she is and spread his toils once more; and, if she has
energy still left, pursue the chase. Even without the nets, caught she
will be, from sheer fatigue,[15] owing to the depth of the snow, which
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy: not made itself heard.
A load of oak timber was to be sent away that morning to a builder
whose works were in a town many miles off. The proud trunks were
taken up from the silent spot which had known them through the
buddings and sheddings of their growth for the foregoing hundred
years; chained down like slaves to a heavy timber carriage with
enormous red wheels, and four of the most powerful of Melbury's
horses were harnessed in front to draw them.
The horses wore their bells that day. There were sixteen to the
team, carried on a frame above each animal's shoulders, and tuned
to scale, so as to form two octaves, running from the highest note
The Woodlanders |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: - eagles, we thought - dwelt at the top of the canyon, among
the crags that were printed on the sky. Now and again, but
very rarely, they wheeled high over our heads in silence, or
with a distant, dying scream; and then, with a fresh impulse,
winged fleetly forward, dipped over a hilltop, and were gone.
They seemed solemn and ancient things, sailing the blue air:
perhaps co-oeval with the mountain where they haunted,
perhaps emigrants from Rome, where the glad legions may have
shouted to behold them on the morn of battle.
But if birds were rare, the place abounded with rattlesnakes
- the rattlesnake's nest, it might have been named. Wherever
|
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 Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: is matted daown, an' all the stun walls tumbled every whichway
wherever it goes.
'An' he says, says he, Mis' Corey, as haow
he sot to look fer Seth's caows, frightened ez he was an' faound
'em in the upper pasture nigh the Devil's Hop Yard in an awful
shape. Haff on 'em's clean gone, an' nigh haff o' them that's
left is sucked most dry o' blood, with sores on 'em like they's
ben on Whateleys cattle ever senct Lavinny's black brat was born.
Seth hes gone aout naow to look at 'em, though I'll vaow he won't
keer ter git very nigh Wizard Whateley's! Cha'ncey didn't look
keerful ter see whar the big matted-daown swath led arter it leff
The Dunwich Horror |
