| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Collection of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: she thought she saw some
white things spread upon the
grass.
LUCIE scrambled up the
hill as fast as her stout
legs would carry her; she ran
along a steep path-way--up
and up--until Little--town was
right away down below--she
could have dropped a pebble
down the chimney!
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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 Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: by way of Nir and the Skin, stealing human clothes at a lonely
farmhouse and loping as closely as possible in the fashion of
a man's walk. In Dylath-Leen's taverns their grotesque ways and
faces had aroused much comment; but they had persisted in asking
the way to Sarkomand until at last an old traveller was able to
tell them. Then they knew that only a ship for Lelag-Leng would
serve their purpose, and prepared to wait patiently for such a
vessel.
But evil spies had doubtless reported much; for shortly
a black galley put into port, and the wide-mouthed ruby merchants
invited the ghouls to drink with them in a tavern. Wine was produced
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Personal Record by Joseph Conrad: mane, to his tail; they lay in piles across his back, seventeen
in all. The carpenter, seizing the hook of the cargo-chain,
flung himself on the top of them. A very satisfactory petty
officer, too, but he stuttered. Have you ever heard a
light-yellow, lean, sad, earnest Chinaman stutter in
Pidgin-English? It's very weird, indeed. He made the
eighteenth. I could not see the pony at all; but from the
swaying and heaving of that heap of men I knew that there was
something alive inside.
From the wharf Almayer hailed, in quavering tones:
"Oh, I say!"
A Personal Record |
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 Adieu by Honore de Balzac: he sought to make upon her instincts--that last shred of her intellect
--that he ended by making her much TAMER than she had ever been.
Every morning he went into the park, and if, after searching for her
long, he could not discover on what tree she was swaying, nor the
covert in which she crouched to play with a bird, nor the roof on
which she might have clambered, he would whistle the well-known air of
"Partant pour la Syrie," to which some tender memory of their love
attached. Instantly, Stephanie would run to him with the lightness of
a fawn. She was now so accustomed to see him, that he frightened her
no longer. Soon she was willing to sit upon his knee, and clasp him
closely with her thin and agile arm. In that attitude--so dear to
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