| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Black Dwarf by Walter Scott: Farewell, Elshie; there's some canny boys waiting for me down
amang the shaws, owerby; I will see you as I come back, and bring
ye a blithe tale in return for your leech-craft."
Ere the Dwarf could collect himself to reply, the Reiver of
Westburnflat set spurs to his horse. The animal, starting at one
of the stones which lay scattered about, flew from the path. The
rider exercised his spurs without moderation or mercy. The horse
became furious, reared, kicked, plunged, and bolted like a deer,
with all his four feet off the ground at once. It was in vain;
the unrelenting rider sate as if he had been a part of the horse
which he bestrode; and, after a short but furious contest,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Meno by Plato: have a sophistical ring, and at the same time show the sophistical
incapacity to grasp a general notion.
Anytus is the type of the narrow-minded man of the world, who is indignant
at innovation, and equally detests the popular teacher and the true
philosopher. He seems, like Aristophanes, to regard the new opinions,
whether of Socrates or the Sophists, as fatal to Athenian greatness. He is
of the same class as Callicles in the Gorgias, but of a different variety;
the immoral and sophistical doctrines of Callicles are not attributed to
him. The moderation with which he is described is remarkable, if he be the
accuser of Socrates, as is apparently indicated by his parting words.
Perhaps Plato may have been desirous of showing that the accusation of
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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 Shadow out of Time by H. P. Lovecraft: of dreaming. I may here remark that sight and sound are the only
senses I have ever exercised in the visionary world.
The real
horror began in May, 1915, when I first saw the living things.
This was before my studies had taught me what, in view of the
myths and case histories, to expect. As mental barriers wore down,
I beheld great masses of thin vapour in various parts of the building
and in the streets below.
These steadily grew more solid and
distinct, till at last I could trace their monstrous outlines
with uncomfortable ease. They seemed to be enormous, iridescent
Shadow out of Time |
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 Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories by Alice Dunbar: torrents from a miserable, angry sky. Too wet a day for bits of
boys to be trudging to school, so Titee's mother thought; so she
kept him at home to watch the weather through the window,
fretting and fuming like a regular storm in miniature. As the
day wore on, and the rain did not abate, his mother kept a strong
watch upon him, for he tried many times to slip away.
Dinner came and went, and the gray soddenness of the skies
deepened into the blackness of coming night. Someone called
Titee to go to bed, and Titee was nowhere to be found.
Under the beds, in closets and corners, in such impossible places
as the soap-dish and water-pitcher even, they searched, but he
The Goodness of St. Rocque and Other Stories |
