| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: text represented an artificial alphabet, giving the effect of
a cipher; though none of the usual methods of cryptographic solution
seemed to furnish any clue, even when applied on the basis of
every tongue the writer might conceivably have used. The ancient
books taken from Whateley's quarters, while absorbingly interesting
and in several cases promising to open up new and terrible lines
of research among philosophers and men of science, were of no
assistance whatever in this matter. One of them, a heavy tome
with an iron clasp, was in another unknown alphabet - this one
of a very different cast, and resembling Sanskrit more than anything
else. The old ledger was at length given wholly into the charge
The Dunwich Horror |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Vision Splendid by William MacLeod Raine: names. Even P. C. Frome could find no excuse for not signing it.
The effect was instantaneous. On this one throw the machine had
staked everything. That it had lost was now plain. In a day Jeff
was the hero of Verden, of the state at large. His long fight for
reform, the dramatic features of the shanghaing and his return,
the collapse of the charges against his character, all contributed
to lift him to dizzy popularity. He was the very much embarrassed
man of the hour.
All the power of the Transcontinental, of the old city hall gang,
of the money that had been spent to corrupt the legislature, was
unable to roll back the tide of public determination. White-faced
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