| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Options by O. Henry: lucky one that sustained the trim figure of Miss Hinkle. Three of us
awaited with suppressed excitement the application of the test. It
was tried on Bud first.
"Mr. Cunningham," said Ileen, with her dazzling smile, after she had
sung When the Leaves Begin to Turn, "what do you really think of my
voice? Frankly and honestly, now, as you know I want you to always be
toward me."
Bud squirmed in his chair at his chance to show the sincerity that he
knew was required of him.
"Tell you the truth, Miss Ileen," he said, earnestly, "you ain't got
much more voice than a weasel--just a little squeak, you know. Of
Options |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: The region now entered by the police was one of traditionally
evil repute, substantially unknown and untraversed by white men.
There were legends of a hidden lake unglimpsed by mortal sight,
in which dwelt a huge, formless white polypous thing with luminous
eyes; and squatters whispered that bat-winged devils flew up out
of caverns in inner earth to worship it at midnight. They said
it had been there before d'Iberville, before La Salle, before
the Indians, and before even the wholesome beasts and birds of
the woods. It was nightmare itself, and to see it was to die.
But it made men dream, and so they knew enough to keep away. The
present voodoo orgy was, indeed, on the merest fringe of this
Call of Cthulhu |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte: creatures,' I answered, 'I think it my duty to interfere.'
'You seemed to have forgotten,' said she, calmly, 'that the
creatures were all created for our convenience.'
I thought that doctrine admitted some doubt, but merely replied -
'If they were, we have no right to torment them for our amusement.'
'I think,' said she, 'a child's amusement is scarcely to be weighed
against the welfare of a soulless brute.'
'But, for the child's own sake, it ought not to be encouraged to
have such amusements,' answered I, as meekly as I could, to make up
for such unusual pertinacity. '"Blessed are the merciful, for they
shall obtain mercy."'
Agnes Grey |
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 Octopus by Frank Norris: huge, terrible, whose names he knew only too well, whirled at a
gallop through his imagination, or rose spectral and grisly
before the eyes of his mind. Harran dead, Annixter dead,
Broderson dead, Osterman, perhaps, even at that moment dying.
Why, these men had made up his world. Annixter had been his best
friend, Harran, his almost daily companion; Broderson and
Osterman were familiar to him as brothers. They were all his
associates, his good friends, the group was his environment,
belonging to his daily life. And he, standing there in the dust
of the road by the irrigating ditch, had seen them shot. He
found himself suddenly at his table, the candle burning at his
|
