| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Turn of the Screw by Henry James: They not only popped out at me as tigers and as Romans,
but as Shakespeareans, astronomers, and navigators.
This was so singularly the case that it had presumably
much to do with the fact as to which, at the present day,
I am at a loss for a different explanation: I allude to my
unnatural composure on the subject of another school for Miles.
What I remember is that I was content not, for the time,
to open the question, and that contentment must have sprung
from the sense of his perpetually striking show of cleverness.
He was too clever for a bad governess, for a parson's daughter,
to spoil; and the strangest if not the brightest thread
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Anthem by Ayn Rand: were broken by your body."
Their white tunic was torn, and the
branches had cut the skin of their arms,
but they spoke as if they had never taken
notice of it, nor of weariness, nor of fear.
"We have followed you," they said,
"and we shall follow you wherever you go.
If danger threatens you, we shall face it also.
If it be death, we shall die with you. You are damned,
and we wish to share your damnation."
They looked upon us, and their voice was low,
Anthem |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: Reverting, ruminated on the words
Betokening me such ill. Onward he mov'd,
And thus in going question'd: "Whence the' amaze
That holds thy senses wrapt?" I satisfied
The' inquiry, and the sage enjoin'd me straight:
"Let thy safe memory store what thou hast heard
To thee importing harm; and note thou this,"
With his rais'd finger bidding me take heed,
"When thou shalt stand before her gracious beam,
Whose bright eye all surveys, she of thy life
The future tenour will to thee unfold."
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
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 Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: or of this earth. But then, the homes and sheds of Dunwich folk
have never been remarkable for olfactory immaculateness.
The
following months were void of visible events, save that everyone
swore to a slow but steady increase in the mysterious hill noises.
On May Eve of 1915 there were tremors which even the Aylesbury
people felt, whilst the following Hallowe'en produced an underground
rumbling queerly synchronized with bursts of flame - 'them witch
Whateleys' doin's' - from the summit of Sentinel Hill. Wilbur
was growing up uncannily, so that he looked like a boy of ten
as he entered his fourth year. He read avidly by himself now;
The Dunwich Horror |
