| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Bucolics by Virgil: Of Amaryllis, or Menalcas wooed,
Albeit he was so dark, and you so fair!
Trust not too much to colour, beauteous boy;
White privets fall, dark hyacinths are culled.
You scorn me, Alexis, who or what I am
Care not to ask- how rich in flocks, or how
In snow-white milk abounding: yet for me
Roam on Sicilian hills a thousand lambs;
Summer or winter, still my milk-pails brim.
I sing as erst Amphion of Circe sang,
What time he went to call his cattle home
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte by Karl Marx: to be overthrown is no longer the monarchy, but the liberal concessions
which had been wrung from it by centuries of struggles. Instead of
society itself having conquered a new point, only the State appears to
have returned to its oldest form, to the simply brazen rule of the sword
and the club. Thus, upon the "coup de main" of February, 1848, comes
the response of the "coup de tete" December, 1851. So won, so lost.
Meanwhile, the interval did not go by unutilized. During the years
1848-1851, French society retrieved in abbreviated, because
revolutionary, method the lessons and teachings, which--if it was to be
more than a disturbance of the surface-should have preceded the February
revolution, had it developed in regular order, by rule, so to say. Now
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: far subtler than the ear; yet one must do so, since their form
was indisputably though vaguely that of half-articulate words.
They were loud - loud as the rumblings and the thunder above which
they echoed - yet did they come from no visible being. And because
imagination might suggest a conjectural source in the world of
non-visible beings, the huddled crowd at the mountain's base huddled
still closer, and winced as if in expectation of a blow.
'Ygnailh...
ygnaiih... thflthkh'ngha.... Yog-Sothoth ...' rang the hideous
croaking out of space. 'Y'bthnk... h'ehye - n'grkdl'lh...'
The
The Dunwich Horror |
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 Sportsman by Xenophon: rim[4] (i.e. from top to bottom) should be ten meshes, and the depth
of the nooses or pockets one elbow-length (say fifteen inches).[5] The
ropes running round the net should be half as thick again as the cords
of the net; and at the extremities[6] they should be fitted with
rings, and should be inserted (in and out) under the nooses, with the
end passing out through the rings. Fifteen nets will be sufficient.[7]
[3] i.e. "of Phasian or Cathaginian fine flax."
[4] {tou koruphaiou}.
[5] {pugon}. The distance from the elbow to the first joint of the
finger = 20 {daktuloi} = 5 {palaistai} = 1 1/4 ft. + (L. & S.)
[6] {ep akrois}. Cf. {akreleniois}.
|
