| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne: bin no doubt: it used to make me sick to see the men's dinners,
and sorry to see my own. The old man was good enough, I
guess; Green was his name; a mild, fatherly old galoot. But the
hands were the lowest gang I ever handled; and whenever I
tried to knock a little spirit into them, the old man took their
part! It was Gilbert and Sullivan on the high seas; but you bet I
wouldn't let any man dictate to me. 'You give me your orders,
Captain Green,' I said, 'and you'll find I'll carry them out; that's
all you've got to say. You'll find I do my duty,' I said; 'how I do
it is my lookout; and there's no man born that's going to give
me lessons.' Well, there was plenty dirt on board that Maria
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Call of the Wild by Jack London: leadership. It was none of their business. Their business was to
toil, and toil mightily, in the traces. So long as that were not
interfered with, they did not care what happened. Billee, the
good-natured, could lead for all they cared, so long as he kept
order. The rest of the team, however, had grown unruly during the
last days of Spitz, and their surprise was great now that Buck
proceeded to lick them into shape.
Pike, who pulled at Buck's heels, and who never put an ounce more
of his weight against the breast-band than he was compelled to do,
was swiftly and repeatedly shaken for loafing; and ere the first
day was done he was pulling more than ever before in his life.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Men of Iron by Howard Pyle: thyself already."
"No matter for that," said Myles; "it is not to be borne that
they order others of us about as they do. I mean to speak to them
to-night, and tell them it shall not be."
He was as good as his word. That night, as the youngsters were
shouting and romping and skylarking, as they always did before
turning in, he stood upon his cot and shouted: "Silence! List to
me a little!" And then, in the hush that followed-- "I want those
bachelors to hear this: that we squires serve them no longer, and
if they would ha' some to wait upon them, they must get them
otherwheres than here. There be twenty of us to stand against
Men of Iron |
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: albino mother with a growing contempt, finally forbidding her
to go to the hills with him on May Eve and Hallowmass; and in
1926 the poor creature complained to Mamie Bishop of being afraid
of him.
'They's more abaout him as I knows than I kin tell ye,
Mamie,' she said, 'an' naowadays they's more nor what I know myself.
I vaow afur Gawd, I dun't know what he wants nor what he's a-tryin'
to dew.'
That Hallowe'en the hill noises sounded louder than
ever, and fire burned on Sentinel Hill as usual; but people paid
more attention to the rhythmical screaming of vast flocks of unnaturally
The Dunwich Horror |
