| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne: added my uncle Toby--It is neither the one nor the other, replied the
corporal, but will suit your honour exactly--Then I'll thank thee for it
with all my heart, cried my uncle Toby; so prithee begin it, Trim.
The corporal made his reverence; and though it is not so easy a matter as
the world imagines, to pull off a lank Montero-cap with grace--or a whit
less difficult, in my conceptions, when a man is sitting squat upon the
ground, to make a bow so teeming with respect as the corporal was wont; yet
by suffering the palm of his right hand, which was towards his master, to
slip backwards upon the grass, a little beyond his body, in order to allow
it the greater sweep--and by an unforced compression, at the same time, of
his cap with the thumb and the two forefingers of his left, by which the
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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: no more than he had told the admiralty officials, and all they
could do was to give me his Oslo address.
After that I went
to Sydney and talked profitlessly with seamen and members of the
vice-admiralty court. I saw the Alert, now sold and in commercial
use, at Circular Quay in Sydney Cove, but gained nothing from
its non-committal bulk. The crouching image with its cuttlefish
head, dragon body, scaly wings, and hieroglyphed pedestal, was
preserved in the Museum at Hyde Park; and I studied it long and
well, finding it a thing of balefully exquisite workmanship, and
with the same utter mystery, terrible antiquity, and unearthly
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 Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas: pressing the hand of the musketeer, "I shall go and draw up
the deed of gift," -- and he left the room.
D'Artagnan looked at him as he went out with something of a
pensive and even an agitated air.
"After all," said he, "he is a brave man. It is only a sad
reflection that it is from fear of me, and not affection
that he acts thus. Well, I shall endeavor that affection may
follow." Then, after an instant's deeper reflection, --
"Bah!" said he, "to what purpose? He is an Englishman." And
he in his turn went out, a little confused after the combat.
"So," said he, "I am a land-owner! But how the devil am I to
Ten Years Later |
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 Sanitary and Social Lectures by Charles Kingsley: If anyone cannot sympathise with the servants with whom she is in
contact all day long, she will not really sympathise with the poor
whom she sees once a week. I know the temptation not to believe
this is very great. It seems so much easier to women to do
something for the poor, than for their own ladies' maids, and
house-maids, and cooks. And why? Because they can treat the poor
as THINGS: but they MUST treat their servants as persons. A lady
can go into a poor cottage, lay down the law to the inhabitants,
reprove them for sins to which she has never been tempted; tell
them how to set things right, which, if she had the doing of them,
I fear she would do even more confusedly and slovenly than they.
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