| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: them. Not from any human throat were they born, for the organs
of man can yield no such acoustic perversions. Rather would one
have said they came from the pit itself, had not their source
been so unmistakably the altar-stone on the peak. It is almost
erroneous to call them sounds at all, since so much of their ghastly,
infra-bass timbre spoke to dim seats of consciousness and terror
far subtler than the ear; yet one must do so, since their form
was indisputably though vaguely that of half-articulate words.
They were loud - loud as the rumblings and the thunder above which
they echoed - yet did they come from no visible being. And because
imagination might suggest a conjectural source in the world of
The Dunwich Horror |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Gorgias by Plato: Nausicydes of the deme of Cholarges, studied together: there were four of
you, and I once heard you advising with one another as to the extent to
which the pursuit of philosophy should be carried, and, as I know, you came
to the conclusion that the study should not be pushed too much into detail.
You were cautioning one another not to be overwise; you were afraid that
too much wisdom might unconsciously to yourselves be the ruin of you. And
now when I hear you giving the same advice to me which you then gave to
your most intimate friends, I have a sufficient evidence of your real good-
will to me. And of the frankness of your nature and freedom from modesty I
am assured by yourself, and the assurance is confirmed by your last speech.
Well then, the inference in the present case clearly is, that if you agree
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