| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: accompanying the remark with a motion of his wen. "Well, old
c-c-comrade, I'll be frank, and t-t-tell you what you want t-t-to
know. I would rather, do you see, f-f-fling my daughter into the Loire
than g-g-give her to her c-c-cousin. You may t-t-tell that everywhere,
--no, never mind; let the world t-t-talk."
This answer dazzled and blinded the young girl with sudden light. The
distant hopes upspringing in her heart bloomed suddenly, became real,
tangible, like a cluster of flowers, and she saw them cut down and
wilting on the earth. Since the previous evening she had attached
herself to Charles by those links of happiness which bind soul to
soul; from henceforth suffering was to rivet them. Is it not the noble
Eugenie Grandet |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Two Poets by Honore de Balzac: others, his predecessors; they had tamed society. Women would love him
when that day came! The example of Napoleon, which, unluckily for this
nineteenth century of ours, has filled a great many ordinary persons
with aspirations after extraordinary destinies,--the example of
Napoleon occurred to Lucien's mind. He flung his schemes to the winds
and blamed himself for thinking of them. For Lucien was so made that
he went from evil to good, or from good to evil, with the same
facility.
Lucien had none of the scholar's love for his retreat; for the past
month indeed he had felt something like shame at the sight of the shop
front, where you could read--
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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 House of Mirth by Edith Wharton: upholstered as the furniture, beings without definite pursuits or
permanent relations, who drifted on a languid tide of curiosity
from restaurant to concert-hall, from palm-garden to music-room,
from "art exhibit" to dress-maker's opening. High-stepping horses
or elaborately equipped motors waited to carry these ladies into
vague metropolitan distances, whence they returned, still more
wan from the weight of their sables, to be sucked back into the
stifling inertia of the hotel routine. Somewhere behind them, in
the background of their lives, there was doubtless a real past,
peopled by real human activities: they themselves were probably
the product of strong ambitions, persistent energies, diversified
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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 At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: musical piping over a singularly wide range.
We were in full
flight before three notes or syllables had been uttered, though
we knew that the swiftness of the Old Ones would enable any scream-roused
and pursuing survivor of the slaughter to overtake us in a moment
if it really wished to do so. We had a vague hope, however, that
nonaggressive conduct and a display of kindred reason might cause
such a being to spare us in case of capture, if only from scientific
curiosity. Alter all, if such an one had nothing to fear for itself,
it would have no motive in harming us. Concealment being futile
at this juncture, we used our torch for a running glance behind,
At the Mountains of Madness |
