| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Figure in the Carpet by Henry James: for mine. Moreover if I always read him as soon as I could get
hold of him I had a particular reason for wishing to read him now:
I had accepted an invitation to Bridges for the following Sunday,
and it had been mentioned in Lady Jane's note that Mr. Vereker was
to be there. I was young enough for a flutter at meeting a man of
his renown, and innocent enough to believe the occasion would
demand the display of an acquaintance with his "last."
Corvick, who had promised a review of it, had not even had time to
read it; he had gone to pieces in consequence of news requiring -
as on precipitate reflexion he judged - that he should catch the
night-mail to Paris. He had had a telegram from Gwendolen Erme in
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: As I have said, the hypothesis of Taylor, Wegener, and Joly that
all the continents are fragments of an original antarctic land
mass which cracked from centrifugal force and drifted apart over
a technically viscous lower surface - an hypothesis suggested
by such things as the complementary outlines of Africa and South
America, and the way the great mountain chains are rolled and
shoved up - receives striking support from this uncanny source.
Maps evidently showing the Carboniferous world of an hundred
million or more years ago displayed significant rifts and chasms
destined later to separate Africa from the once continuous realms
of Europe (then the Valusia of primal legend), Asia, the Americas,
At the Mountains of Madness |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu by Sax Rohmer: had pronounced dead, and, stepping to the tall glass case,
took out a long-necked flask of chased gold, and from it,
into a graduated glass, he poured some drops of an amber liquid
wholly unfamiliar to me. I watched him with all my eyes,
and noted how high the liquid rose in the measure.
He charged a needle-syringe, and, bending again over Aziz,
made an injection.
Then all the wonders I had heard of this man became possible,
and with an awe which any other physician who had examined
Aziz must have felt, I admitted him a miracle-worker. For
as I watched, all but breathless, the dead came to life!
The Insidious Dr. Fu-Manchu |
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 Underground City by Jules Verne: Will the dwellers in Coal Town ever be called to witness this
second ceremony? Time will show. Certainly the strange bird
of old Silfax seemed destined to attain a wonderful longevity.
The Harfang continued to haunt the gloomy recesses of the cave.
After the old man's death, Nell had attempted to keep the owl,
but in a very few days he flew away. He evidently disliked
human society as much as his master had done, and, besides that,
he appeared to have a particular spite against Harry. The jealous
bird seemed to remember and hate him for having carried off Nell
from the deep abyss, notwithstanding all he could do to prevent him.
Still, at long intervals, Nell would see the creature hovering
|
