| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tales of Unrest by Joseph Conrad: They stood facing one another for a moment.
"Not you," he said, with conscious roughness, and began to walk up and
down the room. She remained very still with an air of listening
anxiously to her own heart-beats, then sank down on the chair slowly,
and sighed, as if giving up a task beyond her strength.
"You misunderstand everything I say," he began quietly, "but I prefer
to think that--just now--you are not accountable for your actions." He
stopped again before her. "Your mind is unhinged," he said, with
unction. "To go now would be adding crime--yes, crime--to folly. I'll
have no scandal in my life, no matter what's the cost. And why? You
are sure to misunderstand me--but I'll tell you. As a matter of duty.
Tales of Unrest |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: as hard to traverse as the downward heap had been, but I managed
to pick my difficult way.
At one place I heaved aside some blocks
and locked away the detritus to see what the pavement was like,
and shuddered at the utter, fateful familiarity of the great octagonal
stones whose buckled surface still held roughly together.
Reaching
a convenient distance from the wall, I cast the searchlight slowly
and carefully over its worn remnants of carving. Some bygone influx
of water seemed to have acted on the sandstone surface, while
there were curious incrustations which I could not explain.
Shadow out of Time |
