| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Intentions by Oscar Wilde: certainly be an interpreter, but he will not treat Art as a
riddling Sphinx, whose shallow secret may be guessed and revealed
by one whose feet are wounded and who knows not his name. Rather,
he will look upon Art as a goddess whose mystery it is his province
to intensify, and whose majesty his privilege to make more
marvellous in the eyes of men.
And here, Ernest, this strange thing happens. The critic will
indeed be an interpreter, but he will not be an interpreter in the
sense of one who simply repeats in another form a message that has
been put into his lips to say. For, just as it is only by contact
with the art of foreign nations that the art of a country gains
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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 Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: all his decisions, not only concerning the source of bodies but
concerning a suitable place for our loathsome work. It was I who
thought of the deserted Chapman farmhouse beyond Meadow Hill,
where we fitted up on the ground floor an operating room and a
laboratory, each with dark curtains to conceal our midnight doings.
The place was far from any road, and in sight of no other house,
yet precautions were none the less necessary; since rumours of
strange lights, started by chance nocturnal roamers, would soon
bring disaster on our enterprise. It was agreed to call the whole
thing a chemical laboratory if discovery should occur. Gradually
we equipped our sinister haunt of science with materials either
 Herbert West: Reanimator |