| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: dimmed the skies; mists were creeping up from the horizon. We walked
through a landscape more bitterly gloomy than any our eyes had ever
rested on, a nature that seemed sickly, suffering, covered with salty
crust, the eczema, it might be called, of earth. Here, the soil was
mapped out in squares of unequal size and shape, all encased with
enormous ridges or embankments of gray earth and filled with water, to
the surface of which the salt scum rises. These gullies, made by the
hand of man, are again divided by causeways, along which the laborers
pass, armed with long rakes, with which they drag this scum to the
bank, heaping it on platforms placed at equal distances when the salt
is fit to handle.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Daughter of Eve by Honore de Balzac: thought, wreathing itself with flowers, allows itself to be seen
without disguise, and brought the countess to the highest pitch of
enthusiasm. She believed she saw in Raoul one of the noblest spirits
of the epoch, a delicate but misjudged heart without a stain and
worthy of adoration; she saw him advancing with a brave hand to grasp
the sceptre of power. Soon that speech so beautiful in love would echo
from the tribune. Marie now lived only in this life of a world outside
her own. Her taste was lost for the tranquil joys of home, and she
gave herself up to the agitations of this whirlwind life communicated
by a clever and adoring pen. She kissed Raoul's letters, written in
the midst of the ceaseless battles of the press, with time taken from
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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 Criminal Sociology by Enrico Ferri: thousand prisoners (or in France for thirty or forty thousand) are
too expensive to admit of the observance of these articles of the
penal code--which nevertheless have cost so many academic
discussions as to the best penitentiary system: ``Auburn,''
``Philadelphian,'' ``Irish,'' or ``progressive.'' In the
organisation of justice, on the other hand, every legal regulation
has its immediate application, and therefore reforms of procedure
produce immediate and visible results.
It may be added that, if the slight deterrent influence which it
is possible for punishment to exercise depends, with its
adaptation to various types of criminals, on the certitude and
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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 Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: some cosmic channel too morbid and frightful to contemplate. In
three instances there was specific mention of such an unknown
machine as had been in my house before the second change.
Another
thing that worried me during my investigation was the somewhat
greater frequency of cases where a brief, elusive glimpse of the
typical nightmares was afforded to persons not visited well-defined
amnesia.
These persons were largely of mediocre mind or less
- some so primitive that they could scarcely be thought of as
vehicles forabnormal scholarship and preternatural mental acquisitions.
Shadow out of Time |
