| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: was in mortal fear of some miscarriage. Even now we were on the
rock he said nothing, nor so much as relaxed the frowning look
upon his face; but clapped flat down, and keeping only one eye
above the edge of our place of shelter scouted all round the
compass. The dawn had come quite, clear; we could see the stony
sides of the valley, and its bottom, which was bestrewed with
rocks, and the river, which went from one side to another, and
made white falls; but nowhere the smoke of a house, nor any
living creature but some eagles screaming round a cliff.
Then at last Alan smiled.
"Ay" said he, "now we have a chance;" and then looking at me with
Kidnapped |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An Historical Mystery by Honore de Balzac: faith in God and not in his saints--"
"Is there really a plot?" asked the abbe, simply.
"Base, odious, cowardly, and so contrary to the generous spirit of the
nation," replied Corentin, "that it will meet with universal
opprobrium."
"Well! Mademoiselle de Cinq-Cygne is incapable of baseness," cried the
abbe.
"Monsieur l'abbe," replied Corentin, "let me tell you this; there is
for us (meaning you and me) proof positive of her guilt; but there is
not enough for the law. You see she took flight when we came; I sent
the mayor to warn her."
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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 Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: And the brutes, the work of thine hands,
Fill with injustice lands
And stain with blood the sea:
If still in my veins the glee
Of the black night and the sun
And the lost battle, run:
If, an adept,
The iniquitous lists I still accept
With joy, and joy to endure and be withstood,
And still to battle and perish for a dream of good:
God, if that were enough?
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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: terror which will never leave me till I, too, am at rest; "accidentally"
or otherwise. Persuad-g the widow that my connexion with her husband's
"technical matters" was sufficient to entitle me to his manuscript,
I bore the document away and began to read it on the London boat.
It was a simple, rambling thing - a naive sailor's effort at
a post-facto diary - and strove to recall day by day that last
awful voyage. I cannot attempt to transcribe it verbatim in all
its cloudiness and redundance, but I will tell its gist enough
to shew why the sound the water against the vessel's sides became
so unendurable to me that I stopped my ears with cotton.
Johansen,
Call of Cthulhu |
