| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: computers we used then didn't have lower case at all.
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The Mayflower Compact
November 11, 1620 [This was November 21, old style calendar]
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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 Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: grass and foliage wilted to a curious, sickly yellow-grey, and
over field and forest were scattered the bodies of dead whippoorwills.
The stench left quickly, but the vegetation never came right
again. To this day there is something queer and unholy about the
growths on and around that fearsome hill Curtis Whateley was only
just regaining consciousness when the Arkham men came slowly down
the mountain in the beams of a sunlight once more brilliant and
untainted. They were grave and quiet, and seemed shaken by memories
and reflections even more terrible than those which had reduced
the group of natives to a state of cowed quivering. In reply to
a jumble of questions they only shook their heads and reaffirmed
The Dunwich Horror |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Melmoth Reconciled by Honore de Balzac: man's intentions should be leniently judged. Castanier had just
cleverness enough to be very shrewd where his own interests were
concerned. So he concluded to be a philanthropist on either count, and
at first made her his mistress.
"Hey! hey!" he said to himself, in his soldierly fashion. "I am an old
wolf, and a sheep shall not make a fool of me. Castanier, old man,
before you set up housekeeping, reconnoitre the girl's character for a
bit, and see if she is a steady sort."
This irregular union gave the Piedmontese a status the most nearly
approaching respectability among those which the world declines to
recognize. During the first year she took the nom de guerre of
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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 Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: much you show him of us, and the way we don't allow conspicuous things
like that to occur, believe me, Hortense, he'll never learn, he'll never
smooth down. You may brush his hair flat and keep him appearing like
other people for a while, but a time will come, something will happen,
and that boy'll be conspicuous. Charley would never be conspicuous."
"No," assented Hortense.
Kitty urged her point. "Why, I never saw or beard of anything like that
on the bridge--that is, among--among--us!"
"No," assented Hortense, again, and her voice dropped lower with each
statement. "One always sees the same thing. Always hears the same thing.
Always the same thing." These last almost inaudible words sank away into
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