| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Parmenides by Plato: and he has only just left us to go home.
Accordingly we went to look for him; he was at home, and in the act of
giving a bridle to a smith to be fitted. When he had done with the smith,
his brothers told him the purpose of our visit; and he saluted me as an
acquaintance whom he remembered from my former visit, and we asked him to
repeat the dialogue. At first he was not very willing, and complained of
the trouble, but at length he consented. He told us that Pythodorus had
described to him the appearance of Parmenides and Zeno; they came to
Athens, as he said, at the great Panathenaea; the former was, at the time
of his visit, about 65 years old, very white with age, but well favoured.
Zeno was nearly 40 years of age, tall and fair to look upon; in the days of
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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 Great God Pan by Arthur Machen: you know, but when he laughed she said she was speaking quite
seriously and offered to show him the jar. Of course, he
couldn't say anything more after that; but it seems rather
antiquated for a beverage, doesn't it? Why, here we are at my
rooms. Come in, won't you?"
"Thanks, I think I will. I haven't seen the
curiosity-shop for a while."
It was a room furnished richly, yet oddly, where every
jar and bookcase and table, and every rug and jar and ornament
seemed to be a thing apart, preserving each its own
individuality.
The Great God Pan |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: changeless clouds of that twilight world. And at the sight of
them the sailors sang glad songs, and some knelt down on the deck
to pray, so that Carter knew they were come to the land of Inquanok
and would soon be moored to the basalt quays of the great town
bearing that land's name. Toward noon a dark coastline appeared,
and before three o'clock there stood out against the north the
bulbous domes and fantastic spires of the onyx city. Rare and
curious did that archaic city rise above its walls and quays,
all of delicate black with scrolls, flutings, and arabesques of
inlaid gold. Tall and many-windowed were the houses, and carved
on every side with flowers and patterns whose dark symmetries
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
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 Muse of the Department by Honore de Balzac: hampered by poverty, so perverted by bad examples, so thwarted by
obstacles beyond his courage to surmount. "He will be a greater man if
life is easy to him," said she to herself. And she strove to make him
happy, to give him the sense of a sheltered home by dint of such
economy and method as are familiar to provincial folks. Thus Dinah
became a housekeeper, as she had become a poet, by the soaring of her
soul towards the heights.
"His happiness will be my absolution."
These words, wrung from Madame de la Baudraye by her friend the
lawyer, accounted for the existing state of things. The publicity of
his triumph, flaunted by Etienne on the evening of the first
The Muse of the Department |
