| 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: of having heard of the cult in some indirect way, and of having
invented a series of dreams to heighten and continue the mystery
at my uncle's expense. The dream-narratives and cuttings collected
by the professor were, of course, strong corroboration; but the
rationalism of my mind and the extravagance of the whole subject
led me to adopt what I thought the most sensible conclusions.
So, after thoroughly studying the manuscript again and correlating
the theosophical and anthropological notes with the cult narrative
of Legrasse, I made a trip to Providence to see the sculptor and
give him the rebuke I thought proper for so boldly imposing upon
a learned and aged man.
Call of Cthulhu |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: feel," said the boy, "I must be getting better"; and he sank into a
delicious slumber.
Then the Swallow flew back to the Happy Prince, and told him what
he had done. "It is curious," he remarked, "but I feel quite warm
now, although it is so cold."
"That is because you have done a good action," said the Prince.
And the little Swallow began to think, and then he fell asleep.
Thinking always made him sleepy.
When day broke he flew down to the river and had a bath. "What a
remarkable phenomenon," said the Professor of Ornithology as he was
passing over the bridge. "A swallow in winter!" And he wrote a
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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 Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: above which rises the angular ruddy mass of the old brick fort,
whose ditches swarm with crabs, and whose sluiceways are half
choked by obsolete cannon-shot, now thickly covered with
incrustation of oyster shells.... Around all the gray circling of
a shark-haunted sea...
Sometimes of autumn evenings there, when the hollow of heaven
flames like the interior of a chalice, and waves and clouds are
flying in one wild rout of broken gold,--you may see the tawny
grasses all covered with something like husks,--wheat-colored
husks,--large, flat, and disposed evenly along the lee-side of
each swaying stalk, so as to present only their edges to the
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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 Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: to listen to a dispute between a countryman and a woman about
some meat; but it would come back. He, what had he done to bear
this?
Then came the sudden picture of what might have been, and now.
He knew what it was to be in the penitentiary, how it went with
men there. He knew how in these long years he should slowly
die, but not until soul and body had become corrupt and
rotten,--how, when he came out, if he lived to come, even the
lowest of the mill-hands would jeer him,--how his hands would be
weak, and his brain senseless and stupid. He believed he was
almost that now. He put his hand to his head, with a puzzled,
Life in the Iron-Mills |
