| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from House of Seven Gables by Nathaniel Hawthorne: entrance into a dwelling where they knew themselves unwelcome.
It was feeble, as of persons either weak or weary; there was the
mingled murmur of two voices, familiar to both the listeners.
"Can it be?" whispered Holgrave.
"It is they!" answered Phoebe. "Thank God!--thank God!"
And then, as if in sympathy with Phoebe's whispered ejaculation,
they heard Hepzibah's voice more distinctly.
"Thank God, my brother, we are at home!"
"Well!--Yes!--thank God!" responded Clifford. "A dreary home,
Hepzibah! But you have done well to bring me hither! Stay! That
parlor door is open. I cannot pass by it! Let me go and rest me
 House of Seven Gables |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: forward way was about to cease. We had been all too correct in
our pessimistic guess about that rift glimpsed from the air. Our
tunnel quest was a blind one, and we were not even going to be
able to reach the basement out of which the abyssward aperture
opened.
The torch, flashing over the grotesquely carved walls
of the blocked corridor in which we stood, showed several doorways
in various states of obstruction; and from one of them the gasoline
odor-quite submerging that other hint of odor - came with especial
distinctness. As we looked more steadily, we saw that beyond a
doubt there had been a slight and recent clearing away of debris
 At the Mountains of Madness |