| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: what of it?"
The Wieroo raised his wings in a very human shrug and waved his
bony claws toward the human skulls supporting the ceiling.
His gesture was eloquent; but he embellished it by remarking,
"And possibly if you are."
"I'm hungry," snapped Bradley.
The Wieroo motioned him to one of the doors which he threw open,
permitting Bradley to pass out onto another roof on a level lower
than that upon which they had landed earlier in the morning.
By daylight the city appeared even more remarkable than in the
moonlight, though less weird and unreal. The houses of all
Out of Time's Abyss |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: the others about my find, and Dyer, Freeborn, Boyle, my son, and
I set out to view the anomalous block. Failure, however, confronted
us. I had formed no clear idea of the stone's location, and a
late ind had wholly altered the hillocks of shifting sand.
VI
I come now to the crucial and most difficult part of my narrative
- all the more difficult because I cannot be quite certain of
its reality. At times I feel uncomfortably sure that I was not
dreaming or deluded; and it is this feelingin view of the stupendous
implications which the objective truth of my experience would
raise - which impels me to make this record.
Shadow out of Time |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Call of the Canyon by Zane Grey: you this, Lee, but you made me."
"Flo, you love me an' him--two men?" queried Stanton, incredulously.
"I shore do," she drawled, with a soft laugh. "And it's no fun."
"Reckon I don't cut much of a figure alongside Kilbourne," said Stanton,
disconsolately.
"Lee, you could stand alongside any man," replied Flo, eloquently. "You're
Western, and you're steady and loyal, and you'll--well, some day you'll be
like dad. Could I say more? . . . But, Lee, this man is different. He is
wonderful. I can't explain it, but I feel it. He has been through hell's
fire. Oh! will I ever forget his ravings when he lay so ill? He means more
to me than just one man. He's American. You're American, too, Lee, and you
The Call of the Canyon |
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 Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: side, and by thickets on the other. When we were half-way up we met
another regiment of artillery, its colonel marching at the head. This
colonel wanted to make the captain who was at the head of our foremost
battery back down again. The captain, of course, refused; but the
colonel of the other regiment signed to his foremost battery to
advance, and in spite of the care the driver took to keep among the
scrub, the wheel of the first gun struck our captain's right leg and
broke it, throwing him over on the near side of his horse. All this
was the work of a moment. Our Colonel, who was but a little way off,
guessed that there was a quarrel; he galloped up, riding among the
guns at the risk of falling with his horse's four feet in the air, and
|
