| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Arrow of Gold by Joseph Conrad: never spoke of love to me, love as a subject that is. So perhaps .
. . But why?"
"Because (but maybe that old woman was crazy), because, she said,
there was death in the mockery of love."
Dona Rita moved slightly her beautiful shoulders and went on:
"I am glad, then, I didn't laugh. And I am also glad I said
nothing more. I was feeling so little generous that if I had known
something then of his mother's allusion to 'white geese' I would
have advised him to get one of them and lead it away on a beautiful
blue ribbon. Mrs. Blunt was wrong, you know, to be so scornful. A
white goose is exactly what her son wants. But look how badly the
The Arrow of Gold |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: at one another and muttered. Then they looked down the hill. Apparently
the horror had descended by a route much the same as that of its
ascent. To speculate was futile. Reason, logic, and normal ideas
of motivation stood confounded. Only old Zebulon, who was not
with the group, could have done justice to the situation or suggested
a plausible explanation.
Thursday night began much like the
others, but it ended less happily. The whippoorwills in the glen
had screamed with such unusual persistence that many could not
sleep, and about 3 A.M. all the party telephones rang tremulously.
Those who took down their receivers heard a fright-mad voice shriek
The Dunwich Horror |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Lemorne Versus Huell by Elizabeth Drew Stoddard: I promised, of course. From that time till he left Newport we saw
each other every day, and though I found little opportunity to
express my own peculiar feelings, he comprehended many of my
wishes, and all my tastes. I grew fond of him hourly. Had I not
reason? Never was friend so considerate, never was lover more
devoted.
When he had been gone a few days, Aunt Eliza declared that she
was ready to depart from Newport. The rose-colored days were ended!
In two days we were on the Sound, coach, horses, servants, and
ourselves.
It was the 1st of September when we arrived in Bond Street. A
|
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 Door in the Wall, et. al. by H. G. Wells: something," and connecting him with the anointing of the coils with
oil that had rotted the varnish in one place, he issued an edict,
shouted above the confusion of the machinery, "Don't 'ee go nigh
that big dynamo any more, Pooh-bah, or a'll take thy skin off!"
Besides, if it pleased Azuma-zi to be near the big machine, it was
plain sense and decency to keep him away from it.
Azuma-zi obeyed at the time, but later he was caught bowing
before the Lord of the Dynamos. At which Holroyd twisted his arm
and kicked him as he turned to go away. As Azuma-zi presently
stood behind the engine and glared at the back of the hated
Holroyd, the noises of the machinery took a new rhythm, and sounded
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