| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Resurrection by Leo Tolstoy: conscious of the clearness of his thoughts, believe he was mad;
and all this kept him continually in a state of perplexity.
This is how the things he saw during these three months impressed
Nekhludoff: From among the people who were free, those were
chosen, by means of trials and the administration, who were the
most nervous, the most hot tempered, the most excitable, the most
gifted, and the strongest, but the least careful and cunning.
These people, not a wit more dangerous than many of those who
remained free, were first locked in prisons, transported to
Siberia, where they were provided for and kept months and years
in perfect idleness, and away from nature, their families, and
Resurrection |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: life which had distinguished Sir Eric Moreland Clapham-Lee. Once
a student of reanimation, this silent trunk was now gruesomely
called upon to exemplify it.
I can still see Herbert West under
the sinister electric light as he injected his reanimating solution
into the arm of the headless body. The scene I cannot describe
-- I should faint if I tried it, for there is madness in a room
full of classified charnel things, with blood and lesser human
debris almost ankle-deep on the slimy floor, and with hideous
reptilian abnormalities sprouting, bubbling, and baking over a
winking bluish-green spectre of dim flame in a far corner of black
Herbert West: Reanimator |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Travels with a Donkey in the Cevenne by Robert Louis Stevenson: and brought a pair of lanterns to examine the wayfarer. The man
was not ill-looking, but had a shifty smile. He leaned against the
doorpost, and heard me state my case. All I asked was a guide as
far as Cheylard.
'C'EST QUE, VOYEZ-VOUS, IL FAIT NOIR,' said he.
I told him that was just my reason for requiring help.
'I understand that,' said he, looking uncomfortable; 'MAIS - C'EST
- DE LA PEINE.'
I was willing to pay, I said. He shook his head. I rose as high
as ten francs; but he continued to shake his head. 'Name your own
price, then,' said I.
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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 Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: move" - "It is decreed, nor shall thy fate, O Rome;" - open
and dignified in the sound, various and majestic in the
sentiment, it was no inapt, as it was certainly no timid,
spirit that selected such a range of themes. Of "Gaze not on
Swans," I know no more than these four words; yet that also
seems to promise well. It was, however, on a probable
suspicion, the work of his master, Mr. Berkenshaw - as the
drawings that figure at the breaking up of a young ladies'
seminary are the work of the professor attached to the
establishment. Mr. Berkenshaw was not altogether happy in
his pupil. The amateur cannot usually rise into the artist,
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