| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: pursuits entailed a life of furtiveness and dread of every shadow.
Partly it was the police he feared; but sometimes his nervousness
was deeper and more nebulous, touching on certain indescribable
things into which he had injected a morbid life, and from which
he had not seen that life depart. He usually finished his experiments
with a revolver, but a few times he had not been quick enough.
There was that first specimen on whose rifled grave marks of clawing
were later seen. There was also that Arkham professor’s body which
had done cannibal things before it had been captured and thrust
unidentified into a madhouse cell at Sefton, where it beat the
walls for sixteen years. Most of the other possibly surviving
Herbert West: Reanimator |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Exiles by Honore de Balzac: proof of the fact. He soared through space, carrying with him the
passionate souls of his hearers on the wings of his word, making them
feel the infinite, and bathing them in the heavenly sea. Then the
Doctor accounted logically for hell by circles placed in inverse order
to the shining spheres that lead to God, in which torments and
darkness take the place of the Spirit and of light. Pain was as
intelligible as rapture. The terms of comparison were present in the
conditions of human life and its various atmospheres of suffering and
of intellect. Thus the most extraordinary traditions of hell and
purgatory were quite naturally conceivable.
He gave the fundamental /rationale/ of virtue with admirable
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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 In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: way the torch went out, and we took shelter in a small and lonely
Christian chapel to rekindle it. Stuck in the rafters of the
chapel was a branch of knotted palm. 'What is that?' I asked. 'O,
that's Devil-work,' said the Captain. 'And what is Devil-work?' I
inquired. 'If you like, I'll show you some when we get to
Johnnie's,' he replied. 'Johnnie's' was a quaint little house upon
the crest of the beach, raised some three feet on posts, approached
by stairs; part walled, part trellised. Trophies of advertisement-
photographs were hung up within for decoration. There was a table
and a recess-bed, in which Mrs. Stevenson slept; while I camped on
the matted floor with Johnnie, Mrs. Johnnie, her sister, and the
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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 The Great Big Treasury of Beatrix Potter by Beatrix Potter: "It is only a bread pill, you had
much better take it; drink a little milk,
my dear Duchess!"
"I am feeling very much better, my
dear Ribby," said Duchess. "Do you
not think that I had better go home
before it gets dark?"
"Perhaps it might be wise, my dear
Duchess."
Ribby and Duchess said good-bye
affectionately, and Duchess started
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