| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Woman of No Importance by Oscar Wilde: excessively damp, quite unpardonably damp, and dear Lady Hunstanton
is sometimes a little lax about the people she asks down here. [To
SIR JOHN.] Jane mixes too much. Lord Illingworth, of course, is a
man of high distinction. It is a privilege to meet him. And that
member of Parliament, Mr. Kettle -
SIR JOHN. Kelvil, my love, Kelvil.
LADY CAROLINE. He must be quite respectable. One has never heard
his name before in the whole course of one's life, which speaks
volumes for a man, nowadays. But Mrs. Allonby is hardly a very
suitable person.
HESTER. I dislike Mrs. Allonby. I dislike her more than I can
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: the manner of certain theatres, which give ten last performances of a
piece that is paying. And how many promises they made! How many solemn
pledges did not Dinah exact and the unblushing journalist give her!
Dinah, with superiority of the Superior Woman, accompanied Lousteau,
in the face of all the world, as far as Cosne, with her mother and
little La Baudraye. When, ten days later, Madame de la Baudraye saw in
her drawing-room at La Baudraye, Monsieur de Clagny, Gatien, and
Gravier, she found an opportunity of saying to each in turn:
"I owe it to Monsieur Lousteau that I discovered that I had not been
loved for my own sake."
And what noble speeches she uttered, on man, on the nature of his
The Muse of the Department |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: of the impassable mountains towered afar off at his right, and
the farther he went, the worse tales he heard of them from the
scattered farmers and traders and drivers of lumbering onyx-carts
along the way.
On the second night he camped in the shadow of
a large black crag, tethering his yak to a stake driven in the
ground. He observed the greater phosphorescence of the clouds
at his northerly point, and more than once thought he saw dark
shapes outlined against them. And on the third morning he came
in sight of the first onyx quarry, and greeted the men who there
laboured with picks and chisels. Before evening he had passed
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
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 Dust by Mr. And Mrs. Haldeman-Julius: It was a satisfactory way to die; it took a little of the
loneliness away from the experience.
"Rose," he repeated. It sounded so new, the yearning tone in
which he said it--"Rose!" It hurt. "Isn't it funny, Rose, to go
like this--not sick, no accident--just dying without any real
reason except that I absorbed the poison through a cut so small
my eyes couldn't see it."
"It's a mystery, dear," the little word limped out awkwardly,
"but God's ways are not ours."
"Not a mystery," he corrected, "just a heap of tricks; funny
ones, sad ones, sensible ones, and crazy ones--and of all the
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