| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald: you've got to make your house into a pigsty in order to have any
friends--in the modern world."
Angry as I was, as we all were, I was tempted to laugh whenever he opened
his mouth. The transition from libertine to prig was so complete.
"I've got something to tell YOU, old sport----" began Gatsby. But Daisy
guessed at his intention.
"Please don't!" she interrupted helplessly. "Please let's all go home.
Why don't we all go home?"
"That's a good idea." I got up. "Come on, Tom. Nobody wants a drink."
"I want to know what Mr. Gatsby has to tell me."
"Your wife doesn't love you," said Gatsby. "She's never loved you.
The Great Gatsby |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Collection of Antiquities by Honore de Balzac: if the amount were refunded. Francois Keller's answer was to the
effect that the document was du Croisier's property, and that it was
entirely in his power to keep or return it. Then, in desperation, the
old man went to the Duchess.
Mme. de Maufrigneuse was not at home to any visitor at that hour.
Chesnel, feeling that every moment was precious, sat down in the hall,
wrote a few lines, and succeeded in sending them to the lady by dint
of wheedling, fascinating, bribing, and commanding the most insolent
and inaccessible servants in the world. The Duchess was still in bed;
but, to the great astonishment of her household, the old man in black
knee-breeches, ribbed stockings, and shoes with buckles to them, was
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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 The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath by H. P. Lovecraft: must be the Shantak-birds of ill rumour, and wondered no more
what evil guardians and nameless sentinels made men avoid the
boreal rock desert. And as he stopped in final resignation he
dared at last to look behind him, where indeed was trotting the
squat slant-eyed trader of evil legend, grinning astride a lean
yak and leading on a noxious horde of leering Shantaks to whose
wings still clung the rime and nitre of the nether pits.
Trapped
though he was by fabulous and hippocephalic winged nightmares
that pressed around in great unholy circles, Randolph Carter did
not lose consciousness. Lofty and horrible those titan gargoyles
The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath |
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 Smalcald Articles by Dr. Martin Luther: keys, and also through the mutual conversation and consolation
of brethren, Matt. 18, 20: Where two or three are gathered
together, etc.
V. Of Baptism.
Baptism is nothing else than the Word of God in the water,
commanded by His institution, or, as Paul says, a washing in
the Word; as also Augustine says: Let the Word come to the
element, and it becomes a Sacrament. And for this reason we do
not hold with Thomas and the monastic preachers [or
Dominicans] who forget the Word (God's institution) and say
that God has imparted to the water a spiritual power, which
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