| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Little Rivers by Henry van Dyke: One after another the big fish dashed at that deception, and we
played and netted them, until our score was thirteen, weighing
altogether thirty-five pounds, and the largest five pounds and a
half. The guardian was mystified and disgusted. He looked on for
a while in silence, and then pulled up anchor and clattered ashore.
He must have made some inquiries and reflections during the day,
for that night he paid a visit to our camp. After telling bear
stories and fish stories for an hour or two by the fire, he rose to
depart, and tapping his forefinger solemnly upon my shoulder,
delivered himself as follows:--
"You can say a proud thing when you go home, M'sieu'--that you have
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Letters of Two Brides by Honore de Balzac: been able to pick up in a year--for we are in March now. Alas! no more
Italian opera in another month. How will life be possible without that
heavenly music, when one's heart is full of love?
When I got home, my dear, with determination worthy of a Chaulieu, I
opened my window to watch a shower of rain. Oh! if men knew the magic
spell that a heroic action throws over us, they would indeed rise to
greatness! a poltroon would turn hero! What I had learned about my
Spaniard drove me into a very fever. I felt certain that he was there,
ready to aim another letter at me.
I was right, and this time I burnt nothing. Here, then, is the first
love-letter I have received, madame logician: each to her kind:--
|
| 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: horrible peaks were mountains of madness? But I think I can detect
something of the same spirit - albeit in a less extreme form -
in the men who stalk deadly beasts through African jungles to
photograph them or study their habits. Half paralyzed with terror
though we were, there was nevertheless fanned within us a blazing
flame of awe and curiosity which triumphed in the end.
Of course
we did not mean to face that - or those - which we knew had been
there, but we felt that they must be gone by now. They would by
this time have found the other neighboring entrance to the abyss,
and have passed within, to whatever night-black fragments of the
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 St. Ives by Robert Louis Stevenson: were not real; false in the sense that I boasted, and in the sense
that I lied. How can I arrest him? Your uncle burned the papers!
I told you so - but doubtless you have forgotten - the day I first
saw you in Edinburgh Castle. It was an act of generosity; I have
seen many of these acts, and always regretted - always regretted!
"That shall be his inheritance," he said, as the papers burned; he
did not mean that it should have proved so rich a one. How rich,
time will tell.'
'I beg your pardon a hundred thousand times, my dear sir, but it
strikes me you have the impudence - in the circumstances, I may
call it the indecency - to appear cast down?'
|
