| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: speech, perhaps to tell of what it had seen beyond the unfathomable
abyss.
West was a materialist, believing in no soul and attributing
all the working of consciousness to bodily phenomena; consequently
he looked for no revelation of hideous secrets from gulfs and
caverns beyond death’s barrier. I did not wholly disagree with
him theoretically, yet held vague instinctive remnants of the
primitive faith of my forefathers; so that I could not help eyeing
the corpse with a certain amount of awe and terrible expectation.
Besides -- I could not extract from my memory that hideous, inhuman
shriek we heard on the night we tried our first experiment in
Herbert West: Reanimator |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Madam How and Lady Why by Charles Kingsley: down to play at cards--for money too (which I hope and trust you
never will do)--before he knew the names of the cards, and which
counted highest, and took the other?
Of course he would be very foolish.
Just as foolish are those who make up "theories" (as they call
them) about this world, and how it was made, before they have
found out what the world is made of. You might as well try to
find out how this hay-field was made, without finding out first
what the hay is made of.
How the hay-field was made? Was it not always a hay-field?
Ah, yes; the old story, my child: Was not the earth always just
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Almayer's Folly by Joseph Conrad: friend he is welcome; if he is an enemy you shall see him die."
He laid his hand on his kriss, and awaited the approach of his
unexpected visitor. The fire was burning very low, and small
clouds--precursors of the storm--crossed the face of the moon in
rapid succession, and their flying shadows darkened the clearing.
He could not make out who the man might be, but he felt uneasy at
the steady advance of the tall figure walking on the path with a
heavy tread, and hailed it with a command to stop. The man
stopped at some little distance, and Dain expected him to speak,
but all he could hear was his deep breathing. Through a break in
the flying clouds a sudden and fleeting brightness descended upon
Almayer's Folly |
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 Memorabilia by Xenophon: Soc. Well, and doubtless you feel to have a spark of wisdom yourself?
Ar. Put your questions, and I will answer.
Soc. And yet you imagine that elsewhere no spark of wisdom is to be
found? And that, too, when you know that you have in your body a tiny
fragment only of the mighty earth, a little drop of the great waters,
and of the other elements, vast in their extent, you got, I presume, a
particle of each towards the compacting of your bodily frame? Mind
alone, it would seem, which is nowhere to be found,[10] you had the
lucky chance to snatch up and make off with, you cannot tell how. And
these things around and about us, enormous in size, infinite in
number, owe their orderly arrangement, as you suppose, to some vacuity
The Memorabilia |
