| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most
shockingly frightful. Behind the figure was a vague suggestions
of a Cyclopean architectural background.
The writing accompanying
this oddity was, aside from a stack of press cuttings, in Professor
Angell's most recent hand; and made no pretense to literary style.
What seemed to be the main document was headed "CTHULHU CULT"
in characters painstakingly printed to avoid the erroneous reading
of a word so unheard-of. This manuscript was divided into two
sections, the first of which was headed "1925 - Dream and Dream
Work of H.A. Wilcox, 7 Thomas St., Providence, R. I.", and the
 Call of Cthulhu |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Second Home by Honore de Balzac: butterflies in the azure air, as illogical as the melodious murmur of
the fields, and, like it, full of mysterious love. At that season is
not the rural country as tremulous as a bride that has donned her
marriage robe; does it not invite the coldest soul to be happy? What
heart could remain unthawed, and what lips could keep its secret, on
leaving the gloomy streets of the Marais for the first time since the
previous autumn, and entering the smiling and picturesque valley of
Montmorency; on seeing it in the morning light, its endless horizons
receding from view; and then lifting a charmed gaze to eyes which
expressed no less infinitude mingled with love?
The Stranger discovered that Caroline was sprightly rather than witty,
|