| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Secrets of the Princesse de Cadignan by Honore de Balzac: I found him, one day, leaning with his back against the wall of it; he
seemed pleased with my disasters; possibly he may have thought they
drew us nearer together. But after the affair of Saint-Merri I saw him
no more; he was killed there. The evening before the funeral of
General Lamarque, I had gone out on foot with my son, and my
republican accompanied us, sometimes behind, sometimes in front, from
the Madeleine to the Passage des Panoramas, where I was going."
"Is that all?" asked the marquise.
"Yes, all," replied the princess. "Except that on the morning Saint-
Merri was taken, a gamin came here and insisted on seeing me. He gave
me a letter, written on common paper, signed by my republican."
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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 Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow: I will put his smouldering fire out!"
And at night Kabibonokka,
To the lodge came wild and wailing,
Heaped the snow in drifts about it,
Shouted down into the smoke-flue,
Shook the lodge-poles in his fury,
Flapped the curtain of the door-way.
Shingebis, the diver, feared not,
Shingebis, the diver, cared not;
Four great logs had he for firewood,
One for each moon of the winter,
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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 Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: the sinister manner of his recent disappearance, but was engendered
by the whole nature of his life-work, and first gained its acute
form more than seventeen years ago, when we were in the third
year of our course at the Miskatonic University Medical School
in Arkham. While he was with me, the wonder and diabolism of his
experiments fascinated me utterly, and I was his closest companion.
Now that he is gone and the spell is broken, the actual fear is
greater. Memories and possibilities are ever more hideous than
realities.
The first horrible incident of our acquaintance was
the greatest shock I ever experienced, and it is only with reluctance
Herbert West: Reanimator |
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 Deputy of Arcis by Honore de Balzac: by, and not from, Mademoiselle Chocardelle, who estimated at ten
thousand francs the sacrifice she made in accepting it.
A few days after Charles Keller's death, the note being almost due,
Mademoiselle Antonia went to the counting-room of the Keller Brothers
to inquire about its payment. The cashier, who is crabbed, like all
cashiers, replied that he did not see how Mademoiselle Antonia had the
face to present such a note; at any rate, the heads of the house were
at Gondreville, where the whole family had met after receiving the
fatal news, and he should pay no such note without referring the
matter to them.
"Very good, then I'll refer it to them myself," replied Mademoiselle
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