| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young: the babies' heads.
Then Sister Helen Vincula said: ``Bessie Bell, I am going across the
long bridge to see some ladies and to tell them Good-bye, because we
are going away tomorrow.
And Sister Helen Vincula said: ``Now, will you stay right here on
this stone bench till I come back for you?''
Bessie Bell said, ``Yes, Sister Helen Vincula.''
So Sister Helen Vincula went away across the long bridge to see the
ladies and to tell them Good-bye.
Bessie Bell did not know much about going away, and she did not
understand about it at all, so she did not care at all about it.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Burning Daylight by Jack London: Kearns himself drew two cards, but did not look at them.
Still Harnish let his cards lie.
"I never bet in the teeth of a pat hand," he said slowly, looking
at the saloon-keeper. "You-all start her rolling, Mac."
MacDonald counted his cards carefully, to make doubles sure it
was not a foul hand, wrote a sum on a paper slip, and slid it
into the pot, with the simple utterance:-
"Five thousand."
Kearns, with every eye upon him, looked at his two-card draw,
counted the other three to dispel any doubt of holding more than
five cards, and wrote on a betting slip.
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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 The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: As fury and recklessness increased,
the number falling into the sea became very great. Those striking
the harbour met nameless extinction from the unseen bubblers,
but of those striking the open sea some were able to swim to the
foot of the cliffs and land on tidal rocks, while the hovering
galley of the enemy rescued several moonbeasts. The cliffs were
unscalable except where the monsters had debarked, so that none
of the ghouls on the rocks could rejoin their battle-line. Some
were killed by javelins from the hostile galley or from the moonbeasts
above, but a few survived to be rescued. When the security of
the land parties seemed assured, Carter's galley sallied forth
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
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 Venus and Adonis by William Shakespeare: What bargains may I make, still to be sealing? 512
To sell myself I can be well contented,
So thou wilt buy and pay and use good dealing;
Which purchase if thou make, for fear of slips
Set thy seal-manual on my wax-red lips. 516
'A thousand kisses buys my heart from me;
And pay them at thy leisure, one by one.
What is ten hundred touches unto thee?
Are they not quickly told and quickly gone? 520
Say, for non-payment that the debt should double,
Is twenty hundred kisses such a trouble?'
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