| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Extracts From Adam's Diary by Mark Twain: already had six of them per week, before. This morning found the
new creature trying to clod apples out of that forbidden tree.
Monday
The new creature says its name is Eve. That is all right, I have
no objections. Says it is to call it by when I want it to come.
I said it was superfluous, then. The word evidently raised me in
its respect; and indeed it is a large, good word, and will bear
repetition. It says it is not an It, it is a She. This is probably
doubtful; yet it is all one to me; what she is were nothing to me
if she would but go by herself and not talk.
Tuesday
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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: Decadent
though their style undoubtedly was, these latest carvings had
a truly epic quality where they told of the building of the new
city in the cavern sea. The Old Ones had gone about it scientifically
- quarrying insoluble rocks from the heart of the honeycombed
mountains, and employing expert workers from the nearest submarine
city to perform the construction according to the best methods.
These workers brought with them all that was necessary to establish
the new venture - Shoggoth tissue from which to breed stone lifters
and subsequent beasts of burden for the cavern city, and other
protoplasmic matter to mold into phosphorescent organisms for
At the Mountains of Madness |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato: ALCIBIADES: Yes.
SOCRATES: And when it is better?
ALCIBIADES: Certainly.
SOCRATES: And for as long a time as is better?
ALCIBIADES: Yes.
SOCRATES: But suppose the Athenians to deliberate with whom they ought to
close in wrestling, and whom they should grasp by the hand, would you, or
the master of gymnastics, be a better adviser of them?
ALCIBIADES: Clearly, the master of gymnastics.
SOCRATES: And can you tell me on what grounds the master of gymnastics
would decide, with whom they ought or ought not to close, and when and how?
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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 Woman and Labour by Olive Schreiner: bake and brew, and rear and train my babes, if I went abroad? New labour,
indeed, when the days are not long enough, and I have to toil far into the
night! I have no time to talk with fools! Who will rear and shape the
nation if I do not?"
And the young maiden at the cottage door, beside her wheel, asked why she
was content and did not seek new fields of labour, would surely have
answered: "Go away, I have no time to listen to you. Do you not see that
I am spinning here that I too may have a home of my own? I am weaving the
linen garments that shall clothe my household in the long years to come! I
cannot marry till the chest upstairs be full. You cannot hear it, but as I
sit here alone, spinning, far off across the hum of my spinning-wheel I
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