| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Snow Image by Nathaniel Hawthorne: THE DEVIL IN MANUSCRIPT
On a bitter evening of December, I arrived by mail in a large
town, which was then the residence of an intimate friend, one of
those gifted youths who cultivate poetry and the belles-lettres,
and call themselves students at law. My first business, after
supper, was to visit him at the office of his distinguished
instructor. As I have said, it was a bitter night, clear
starlight, but cold as Nova Zembla,--the shop-windows along the
street being frosted, so as almost to hide the lights, while the
wheels of coaches thundered equally loud over frozen earth and
pavements of stone. There was no snow, either on the ground or
The Snow Image |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: that was why Herbert West had entered the Great War.
The phantasmal,
unmentionable thing occurred one midnight late in March, 1915,
in a field hospital behind the lines of St. Eloi. I wonder even
now if it could have been other than a daemoniac dream of delirium.
West had a private laboratory in an east room of the barn-like
temporary edifice, assigned him on his plea that he was devising
new and radical methods for the treatment of hitherto hopeless
cases of maiming. There he worked like a butcher in the midst
of his gory wares -- I could never get used to the levity with
which he handled and classified certain things. At times he actually
Herbert West: Reanimator |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Laches by Plato: speaking, in learning, and in many other similar actions, or rather which
we possess in nearly every action that is worth mentioning of arms, legs,
mouth, voice, mind;--would you not apply the term quickness to all of them?
LACHES: Quite true.
SOCRATES: And suppose I were to be asked by some one: What is that common
quality, Socrates, which, in all these uses of the word, you call
quickness? I should say the quality which accomplishes much in a little
time--whether in running, speaking, or in any other sort of action.
LACHES: You would be quite correct.
SOCRATES: And now, Laches, do you try and tell me in like manner, What is
that common quality which is called courage, and which includes all the
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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 Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: false saints [or hypocrites], and all of you on either side
need the forgiveness of sins, because neither of you know what
true sin is not to say anything about your duty to repent of
it and shun it. For no one of you is good; you are full of
unbelief, stupidity, and ignorance of God and God's will. For
here He is present of whose fulness have all we received, and
grace for grace, John 1, 16, and without Him no man can be
just before God. Therefore, if you wish to repent, repent
aright- your penance will not accomplish anything [is
nothing]. And you hypocrites, who do not need repentance, you
serpents' brood, who has assured you that you will escape the
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