| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: home. There was a certain amount of disputation, and meanwhile
she went on at school. They compromised at length on the science
course at the Tredgold Women's College--she had already
matriculated into London University from school--she came of age,
and she bickered with her aunt for latch-key privileges on the
strength of that and her season ticket. Shamefaced curiosities
began to come back into her mind, thinly disguised as literature
and art. She read voraciously, and presently, because of her
aunt's censorship, she took to smuggling any books she thought
might be prohibited instead of bringing them home openly, and she
went to the theatre whenever she could produce an acceptable
|
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: the one when the source should yield the other. Animal fury and
orgiastic license here whipped themselves to daemoniac heights
by howls and squawking ecstacies that tore and reverberated through
those nighted woods like pestilential tempests from the gulfs
of hell. Now and then the less organized ululation would cease,
and from what seemed a well-drilled chorus of hoarse voices would
rise in sing-song chant that hideous phrase or ritual:
"Ph'nglui
mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."
Then the men, having
reached a spot where the trees were thinner, came suddenly in
Call of Cthulhu |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: habits and customs when a new species of religion, which might be
called child-idolatry, appeared. Nor shall we find it easier to
discover by what species of influence this worship has reached its
present enormous development among us. But, although unexplained, the
fact exists and ought to be recorded by every faithful historian of
the great and the little movements of society. In the family of to-day
children have taken the place of the household gods of the ancients,
and whoever does not share this worship is not a morose and sour
spirit, nor a captious and annoying reasoner,--he is simply an
atheist.
Try to amuse one of these beloved adored ones, all puffed up, as they
|
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 Mirror of the Sea by Joseph Conrad: yachting. And, behold! it was a good article. To a man who had
but little to do with pleasure sailing (though all sailing is a
pleasure), and certainly nothing whatever with racing in open
waters, the writer's strictures upon the handicapping of yachts
were just intelligible and no more. And I do not pretend to any
interest in the enumeration of the great races of that year. As to
the 52-foot linear raters, praised so much by the writer, I am
warmed up by his approval of their performances; but, as far as any
clear conception goes, the descriptive phrase, so precise to the
comprehension of a yachtsman, evokes no definite image in my mind.
The writer praises that class of pleasure vessels, and I am willing
The Mirror of the Sea |
