| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac: "You had better wait till daylight for your nonsense," she cried,
fastening the petticoat beneath her short night-gown and going to the
door of the room where her daughter was in bed.
"Cesarine is asleep," she said, "she won't hear us. Come, Birotteau,
speak up. What is it?"
"We can give a ball."
"Give a ball! we? On the word of an honest woman, you are dreaming, my
friend."
"I am not dreaming, my beautiful white doe. Listen. People should
always do what their position in life demands. Government has brought
me forward into prominence. I belong to the government; it is my duty
Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare: A rude unruly rout, then man to man
Became a present prey, then might prevailed,
The weakest went to walls:
Right was unknown, for wrong was all in all.
As men thus lived in this great outrage,
Behold one Orpheus came, as poets tell,
And them from rudeness unto reason brought,
Who led by reason soon forsook the woods.
Instead of caves they built them castles strong;
Cities and towns were founded by them then:
Glad were they, they found such ease,
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: the old secret of interstellar travel had been, it was now definitely
lost to the race. In the end the Mi-Go drove the Old Ones out
of all the northern lands, though they were powerless to disturb
those in the sea. Little by little the slow retreat of the elder
race to their original antarctic habitat was beginning.
It was
curious to note from the pictured battles that both the Cthulhu
spawn and the Mi-Go seem to have been composed of matter more
widely different from that which we know than was the substance
of the Old Ones. They were able to undergo transformations and
reintegrations impossible for their adversaries, and seem therefore
At the Mountains of Madness |
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 Lesson of the Master by Henry James: "Oh I want to, heaven knows!"
"Well, you can't do it without sacrifices - don't believe that for
a moment," the Master said. "I've made none. I've had everything.
In other words I've missed everything."
"You've had the full rich masculine human general life, with all
the responsibilities and duties and burdens and sorrows and joys -
all the domestic and social initiations and complications. They
must be immensely suggestive, immensely amusing," Paul anxiously
submitted.
"Amusing?"
"For a strong man - yes."
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