| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Historical Lecturers and Essays by Charles Kingsley: while he is the slave of all the weaknesses of humanity. But such,
as an historic fact, has been the last stage of every civilisation--
even that of Rome, which ripened itself upon this earth the last in
ancient times, and, I had almost said, until this very day, except
among the men who speak Teutonic tongues, and who have preserved
through all temptations, and reasserted through all dangers, the
free ideas which have been our sacred heritage ever since Tacitus
beheld us, with respect and awe, among our German forests, and saw
in us the future masters of the Roman Empire.
Yes, it is very sad, the past history of mankind. But shall we
despise those who went before us, and on whose accumulated labours
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: Street. He had cried out in the night, arousing several other
artists in the building, and had manifested since then only alternations
of unconsciousness and delirium. My uncle at once telephoned the
family, and from that time forward kept close watch of the case;
calling often at the Thayer Street office of Dr. Tobey, whom he
learned to be in charge. The youth's febrile mind, apparently,
was dwelling on strange things; and the doctor shuddered now and
then as he spoke of them. They included not only a repetition
of what he had formerly dreamed, but touched wildly on a gigantic
thing "miles high" which walked or lumbered about.
He at no
Call of Cthulhu |
