| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of the Golden Bullet by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner: a few necessities and announced himself as ready to start. He
insisted on carrying the torn coat, and Muller permitted it after
some protest. They carefully closed the apartment and the house,
and walked toward the centre of the city to the police station,
where Muller lived.
As they crossed the square, it suddenly occurred to Johann that he
had no tobacco. He was a great smoker, and as he had many days of
enforced idleness ahead of him, he ran into a tobacco shop to
purchase a sufficiency of this necessity of life.
Muller waited outside, and his attention was attracted by a large
grey Ulmer hound which was evidently waiting for some one within
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: the future he had planned for her. Only, and once for all, he
must know the truth, know the worst, stifle all these insistent
doubts and subtle hopes and jealous fancies, and kill the past by
knowing truly what Bess had been to Oldring. For that matter he
knew--he had always known, but he must hear it spoken. Then, when
they had safely gotten out of that wild country to take up a new
and an absorbing life, she would forget, she would be happy, and
through that, in the years to come, he could not but find life
worth living.
All day he rode slowly and cautiously up the Pass, taking time to
peer around corners, to pick out hard ground and grassy patches,
Riders of the Purple Sage |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Lesser Bourgeoisie by Honore de Balzac: therefore Cerizet, being in the plot, must know the countess;
therefore, through him I shall get upon her traces. In any case, I am
sure of information about this extraordinary choice that has fallen
upon me; evidently, these people, whoever they are, who can pull the
wires of such puppets to reach their ends must be persons of
considerable position; therefore, I'll go and see Cerizet."
And he went to see Cerizet.
Since the dinner at the Rocher de Cancale, the pair had not met. Once
or twice la Peyrade had asked Dutocq at the Thuilliers' (where the
latter seldom went now, on account of the distance to their new abode)
what had become of his copying clerk.
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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 The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: of strange uneasiness is increased. The summits are too rounded
and symmetrical to give a sense of comfort and naturalness, and
sometimes the sky silhouettes with especial clearness the queer
circles of tall stone pillars with which most of them are crowned.
Gorges and ravines of problematical depth intersect the way,
and the crude wooden bridges always seem of dubious safety. When
the road dips again there are stretches of marshland that one
instinctively dislikes, and indeed almost fears at evening when
unseen whippoorwills chatter and the fireflies come out in abnormal
profusion to dance to the raucous, creepily insistent rhythms
of stridently piping bull-frogs. The thin, shining line of the
The Dunwich Horror |
