| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Road to Oz by L. Frank Baum: streams from his shaggy whiskers. He scrambled ashore and shook
himself to get off some of the wet, and then leaned over the pool to
look admiringly at his reflected face.
"I may not be strictly beautiful, even now," he said to his
companions, who watched him with smiling faces; "but I'm so much
handsomer than any donkey that I feel as proud as I can be."
"You're all right, Shaggy Man," declared Dorothy. "And Button-Bright
is all right, too. So let's thank the Truth Pond for being so nice,
and start on our journey to the Emerald City."
"I hate to leave it," murmured the shaggy man, with a sigh. "A truth
pond wouldn't be a bad thing to carry around with us." But he put on
The Road to Oz |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Lover's Complaint by William Shakespeare: Crack'd many a ring of posied gold and bone,
Bidding them find their sepulchres in mud;
Found yet mo letters sadly penn'd in blood,
With sleided silk feat and affectedly
Enswath'd, and seal'd to curious secrecy.
These often bath'd she in her fluxive eyes,
And often kiss'd, and often 'gan to tear;
Cried, 'O false blood, thou register of lies,
What unapproved witness dost thou bear!
Ink would have seem'd more black and damned here!'
This said, in top of rage the lines she rents,
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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 Tono Bungay by H. G. Wells: encouraging way that she feared I was a very "frivolous" person.
I wonder now what it was I said that was "frivolous."
I don't know what happened to end that conversation, or if it had
an end. I remember talking to one of the clergy for a time
rather awkwardly, and being given a sort of topographical history
of Beckenham, which he assured me time after time was "Quite an
old place. Quite an old place." As though I had treated it as
new and he meant to be very patient but very convincing. Then
we hung up in a distinct pause, and my aunt rescued me.
"George," she said in a confidential undertone, "keep the pot
a-boiling." And then audibly, "I say, will you both old trot
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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 Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: upon at least three of the precise words of the formula uttered
alike by Esquimaux diabolists and mongrel Louisianans?. Professor
Angell's instant start on an investigation of the utmost thoroughness
was eminently natural; though privately I suspected young Wilcox
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
Call of Cthulhu |
