| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Love Songs by Sara Teasdale: Lift me up in your love as a light wind lifts a swallow,
Let our flight be far in sun or blowing rain --
*But what if I heard my first love calling me again?*
Hold me on your heart as the brave sea holds the foam,
Take me far away to the hills that hide your home;
Peace shall thatch the roof and love shall latch the door --
*But what if I heard my first love calling me once more?*
Dew
As dew leaves the cobweb lightly
Threaded with stars,
Scattering jewels on the fence
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Outlaw of Torn by Edgar Rice Burroughs: the mission of the party, for visitors seldom came to
this inaccessible and unhospitable fortress; and he well
knew that no party of a dozen knights would venture
with hostile intent within the clutches of his great
band of villains.
The great red giant soon returned to say that it was
Henry de Montfort, oldest son of the Earl of Leicester,
who had come under a flag of truce and would have
speech with the master of Torn.
"Admit them, Shandy," commanded Norman of Torn,
"I will speak with them here."
The Outlaw of Torn |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad: "Oh! Nothing," said Ossipon, gazing earnestly and quivering
inwardly with the desire to find out something, but obviously
intimidated by the little man's overwhelming air of unconcern.
When talking with this comrade - which happened but rarely - the
big Ossipon suffered from a sense of moral and even physical
insignificance. However, he ventured another question. "Did you
walk down here?"
"No; omnibus," the little man answered readily enough. He lived
far away in Islington, in a small house down a shabby street,
littered with straw and dirty paper, where out of school hours a
troop of assorted children ran and squabbled with a shrill,
The Secret Agent |
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: His name was John Raymond Legrasse, and he was by profession an
Inspector of Police. With him he bore the subject of his visit,
a grotesque, repulsive, and apparently very ancient stone statuette
whose origin he was at a loss to determine. It must not be fancied
that Inspector Legrasse had the least interest in archaeology.
On the contrary, his wish for enlightenment was prompted by purely
professional considerations. The statuette, idol, fetish, or whatever
it was, had been captured some months before in the wooded swamps
south of New Orleans during a raid on a supposed voodoo meeting;
and so singular and hideous were the rites connected with it,
that the police could not but realise that they had stumbled on
Call of Cthulhu |
