| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Crowd by Gustave le Bon: cited as a typical example. After the taking of the fortress the
governor, surrounded by a very excited crowd, was dealt blows
from every direction. It was proposed to hang him, to cut off
his head, to tie him to a horse's tail. While struggling, he
accidently kicked one of those present. Some one proposed, and
his suggestion was at once received with acclamation by the
crowd, that the individual who had been kicked should cut the
governor's throat.
"The individual in question, a cook out of work, whose chief
reason for being at the Bastille was idle curiosity as to what
was going on, esteems, that since such is the general opinion,
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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: Baudraye go by in a carriage; she was going to the Boulevard by the
Rue de la Chaussee d'Antin to drive in the Bois.
"There is nothing else left!" said he to himself, and he went home to
smarten himself up.
That evening, at seven, he arrived in a hackney cab at Madame de la
Baudraye's door, and begged the porter to send a note up to the
Countess--a few lines, as follows:
"Would Madame la Comtesse do Monsieur Lousteau the favor of receiving
him for a moment, and at once?"
This note was sealed with a seal which as lovers they had both used.
Madame de la Baudraye had had the word /Parce que/ engraved on a
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 At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: as the queer cave mouths, were as thick on the inner as on the
outer sides of the mountains.
The nameless stone labyrinth consisted,
for the most part, of walls from ten to one hundred and fifty
feet in ice-clear height, and of a thickness varying from five
to ten feet. It was composed mostly of prodigious blocks of dark
primordial slate, schist, and sandstone - blocks in many cases
as large as 4 x 6 x 8 feet - though in several places it seemed
to be carved out of a solid, uneven bed rock of pre-Cambrian slate.
The buildings were far from equal in size, there being innumerable
honeycomb arrangements of enormous extent as well as smaller separate
At the Mountains of Madness |
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 Research Magnificent by H. G. Wells: walks, without this noise of leaves. . . .
Yes, this was very wonderful and beautiful, and there must always be
jungles for men to walk in. Always there must be jungles. . . .
Some small beast snarled and bolted from under his feet. He stopped
sharply. He had come into a darkness under great boughs, and now he
stood still as the little creature scuttled away. Beyond the track
emerged into a dazzling whiteness. . . .
In the stillness he could hear the deer belling again in the
distance, and then came a fuss of monkeys in a group of trees near
at hand. He remained still until this had died away into
mutterings.
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