| 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: 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
between the headlands and drove the hostile ship far out to sea;
pausing to rescue such ghouls as were on the rocks or still swimming
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 Moon-Face and Other Stories by Jack London: he smoked a pipe by the smouldering coals, listening to the night noises and
watching the moonlight stream through the canyon. After that he unrolled his
bed, took off his heavy shoes, and pulled the blankets up to his chin. His
face showed white in the moonlight, like the face of a corpse. But it was a
corpse that knew its resurrection, for the man rose suddenly on one elbow and
gazed across at his hillside.
"Good night, Mr. Pocket," he called sleepily. "Good night."
He slept through the early gray of morning until the direct rays of the sun
smote his closed eyelids, when he awoke with a start and looked about him
until he had established the continuity of his existence and identified his
present self with the days previously lived.
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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 Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: called the supreme head of the Christian Church by divine
right. Accordingly he had to make himself equal and superior
to Christ, and had to cause himself to be proclaimed the head
and then the lord of the Church, and finally of the whole
world, and simply God on earth, until he has dared to issue
commands even to the angels in heaven. And when we distinguish
the Pope s teaching from, or measure and hold it against, Holy
Scripture, it is found [it appears plainly] that the Pope s
teaching, where it is best, has been taken from the imperial
and heathen law and treats of political matters and decisions
or rights, as the Decretals show; furthermore, it teaches of
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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 Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde: an outcast! to find the door shut against one, to have to creep in
by hideous byways, afraid every moment lest the mask should be
stripped from one's face, and all the while to hear the laughter,
the horrible laughter of the world, a thing more tragic than all
the tears the world has ever shed. You don't know what it is. One
pays for one's sin, and then one pays again, and all one's life one
pays. You must never know that. - As for me, if suffering be an
expiation, then at this moment I have expiated all my faults,
whatever they have been; for to-night you have made a heart in one
who had it not, made it and broken it. - But let that pass. I may
have wrecked my own life, but I will not let you wreck yours. You
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