| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: to it, but never seen again.
That night the moon was very bright,
and one could see a great way down in the water. There was so
little wind that the ship could not move much, and the ocean was
very calm. Looking over the rail Carter saw many fathoms deep
the dome of the great temple, and in front of it an avenue of
unnatural sphinxes leading to what was once a public square. Dolphins
sported merrily in and out of the ruins, and porpoises revelled
clumsily here and there, sometimes coming to the surface and leaping
clear out of the sea. As the ship drifted on a little the floor
of the ocean rose in hills, and one could clearly mark the lines
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac: sensitiveness, and those who have missed their destiny, or who suffer
by their own fault.
Without really fathoming the vacuity and emptiness of Mademoiselle
Gamard's mind, or stating to himself the pettiness of her ideas, the
poor abbe perceived, unfortunately too late, the defects which she
shared with all old maids, and those which were peculiar to herself.
The bad points of others show out so strongly against the good that
they usually strike our eyes before they wound us. This moral
phenomenon might, at a pinch, be made to excuse the tendency we all
have, more or less, to gossip. It is so natural, socially speaking, to
laugh at the failings of others that we ought to forgive the ridicule
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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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: knew; because he heard them all cry out so, in their language, one
to another; for it was impossible for them to conceive that a man
could dart fire, and speak thunder, and kill at a distance, without
lifting up the hand, as was done now: and this old savage was in
the right; for, as I understood since, by other hands, the savages
never attempted to go over to the island afterwards, they were so
terrified with the accounts given by those four men (for it seems
they did escape the sea), that they believed whoever went to that
enchanted island would be destroyed with fire from the gods. This,
however, I knew not; and therefore was under continual
apprehensions for a good while, and kept always upon my guard, with
Robinson Crusoe |
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 Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare: And not a tinker, nor Christophero Sly.
Well, bring our lady hither to our sight;
And once again, a pot o' the smallest ale.
SECOND SERVANT.
Will't please your mightiness to wash your hands?
[Servants present a ewer, basin, and napkin.]
O, how we joy to see your wit restor'd!
O, that once more you knew but what you are!
These fifteen years you have been in a dream,
Or, when you wak'd, so wak'd as if you slept.
SLY.
The Taming of the Shrew |
