| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson: There still would seem to be a way.
Theophilus
By what serene malevolence of names
Had you the gift of yours, Theophilus?
Not even a smeared young Cyclops at his games
Would have you long, -- and you are one of us.
Told of your deeds I shudder for your dreams,
And they, no doubt, are few and innocent.
Meanwhile, I marvel; for in you, it seems,
Heredity outshines environment.
What lingering bit of Belial, unforeseen,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: him down. Two Lascar sailors at once helped him to his feet, but
before the ambulance could reach him he was dead. Physicians found
no adequate cause the end, and laid it to heart trouble and a
weakened constitution. I now felt gnawing at my vitals that dark
terror which will never leave me till I, too, am at rest; "accidentally"
or otherwise. Persuad-g the widow that my connexion with her husband's
"technical matters" was sufficient to entitle me to his manuscript,
I bore the document away and began to read it on the London boat.
It was a simple, rambling thing - a naive sailor's effort at
a post-facto diary - and strove to recall day by day that last
awful voyage. I cannot attempt to transcribe it verbatim in all
Call of Cthulhu |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: bridled, shied, answered the question, and then breasted once more
into the swelling tide of his subject. I call it his subject; but
I think it was he who was subjected. The ARETHUSA, who holds all
racing as a creature of the devil, found himself in a pitiful
dilemma. He durst not own his ignorance for the honour of Old
England, and spoke away about English clubs and English oarsmen
whose fame had never before come to his ears. Several times, and,
once above all, on the question of sliding-seats, he was within an
ace of exposure. As for the CIGARETTE, who has rowed races in the
heat of his blood, but now disowns these slips of his wanton youth,
his case was still more desperate; for the Royal Nautical proposed
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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 Wife, et al by Anton Chekhov: knowing. Why this secrecy? Why this conspiracy? What have I done
to them? Ivan Ivanitch is right -- I must go away."
Next morning I woke up firmly resolved to go away. The events of
the previous day -- the conversation at tea, my wife, Sobol, the
supper, my apprehensions -- worried me, and I felt glad to think
of getting away from the surroundings which reminded me of all
that. While I was drinking my coffee the bailiff gave me a long
report on various matters. The most agreeable item he saved for
the last.
"The thieves who stole our rye have been found," he announced
with a smile. "The magistrate arrested three peasants at Pestrovo
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