| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Familiar Studies of Men and Books by Robert Louis Stevenson: medium of thought. Principal Shairp, for instance, gives us
a paraphrase of one tough verse of the original; and for
those who know the Greek poets only by paraphrase, this has
the very quality they are accustomed to look for and admire
in Greek. The contemporaries of Burns were surprised that he
should visit so many celebrated mountains and waterfalls, and
not seize the opportunity to make a poem. Indeed, it is not
for those who have a true command of the art of words, but
for peddling, professional amateurs, that these pointed
occasions are most useful and inspiring. As those who speak
French imperfectly are glad to dwell on any topic they may
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: legs gripped the front edge and extended a quarter of the way
clown toward the bottom of the pedestal. The cephalopod head was
bent forward, so that the ends of the facial feelers brushed the
backs of huge fore paws which clasped the croucher's elevated
knees. The aspect of the whole was abnormally life-like, and the
more subtly fearful because its source was so totally unknown.
Its vast, awesome, and incalculable age was unmistakable; yet
not one link did it shew with any known type of art belonging
to civilisation's youth - or indeed to any other time. Totally
separate and apart, its very material was a mystery; for the soapy,
greenish-black stone with its golden or iridescent flecks and
Call of Cthulhu |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Silverado Squatters by Robert Louis Stevenson: yet, as I looked again, I was not sure but they were moving
after all, with a slow and august advance. And while I was
yet doubting, a promontory of the some four or five miles
away, conspicuous by a bouquet of tall pines, was in a single
instant overtaken and swallowed up. It reappeared in a
little, with its pines, but this time as an islet, and only
to be swallowed up once more and then for good. This set me
looking nearer, and I saw that in every cove along the line
of mountains the fog was being piled in higher and higher, as
though by some wind that was inaudible to me. I could trace
its progress, one pine tree first growing hazy and then
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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 The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: occasions; but, alack, he's gone the way of all flesh ---- Look,
look, look, cries a third, after a competent space of staring at
me, would not one think our neighbour the almanack-maker, was
crept out of his grave to take t'other peep at the stars in this
world, and shew how much he is improv'd in fortune-telling by
having taken a journey to the other?
Nay, the very reader, of our parish, a good sober, discreet
person, has sent two or three times for me to come and be buried
decently, or send him sufficient reasons to the contrary, if I
have been interr'd in any other parish, to produce my
certificate, as the act requires. My poor wife is almost run
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