| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Start in Life by Honore de Balzac: creature in the town; almond eyes, lids that dropped like curtains,
lashes like a paint-brush, a face with an oval to drive Raffaelle mad,
a skin of the most delicious coloring, tints well-blended, velvety!
and hands, oh!--"
"They weren't made of butter like those of the David school," put in
Mistigris.
"You are always lugging in your painting," cried Georges.
"La, la!" retorted Mistigris; "'an ounce o' paint is worth a pound of
swagger.'"
"And such a costume! pure Greek!" continued Schinner. "Conflagration
of soul! you understand? Well, I questioned my Diafoirus; and he told
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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 Koran: little to enjoy, then will drive him to the torment of the fire, an
evil journey will it be.'
And when Abraham raised up the foundations of the House with
Ishmael, 'Lord! receive it from us, verily, thou art hearing and
dost know. Lord! and make us too resigned unto Thee, and of our seed
also a nation resigned unto Thee, and show us our rites, and turn
towards us, verily, Thou art easy to be turned and merciful. Lord! and
send them an apostle from amongst themselves, to read to them Thy
signs and teach them the Book and wisdom, and to purify them;
verily, Thou art the mighty and the wise.'
Who is averse from the faith of Abraham save one who is foolish of
The Koran |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Agesilaus by Xenophon: pass on to the moment when he had received his army and set sail, I
can conceive no clearer exposition of his generalship than the bare
narration of his exploits.
The scene is Asia, and this his first achievement. Tissaphernes had
sworn an oath to Agesilaus on this wise: if Agesilaus would grant him
an armistice until the return of certain ambassadors whom he would
send to the king, he (Tissaphernes) would do his utmost to procure the
independence of the Hellenic cities in Asia. And Agesilaus took a
counter oath: without fraud or covin to observe the armistice during
the three months[7] necessary to that transaction. But the compact was
scarcely made when Tissaphernes gave the lie to the solemn undertaking
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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 At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: such a being to spare us in case of capture, if only from scientific
curiosity. Alter all, if such an one had nothing to fear for itself,
it would have no motive in harming us. Concealment being futile
at this juncture, we used our torch for a running glance behind,
and perceived that the mist was thinning. Would we see, at last,
a complete and living specimen of those others? Again came that
insidious musical piping- "Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!" Then, noting
that we were actually gaining on our pursuer, it occurred to us
that the entity might be wounded. We could take no chances, however,
since it was very obviously approaching in answer to Danforth’s
scream, rather than in flight from any other entity. The timing
At the Mountains of Madness |
