| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: of every object delineated. We felt, too, that besides these recognizable
excellences there were others lurking beyond the reach of our
perceptions. Certain touches here and there gave vague hints of
latent symbols and stimuli which another mental and emotional
background, and a fuller or different sensory equipment, might
have made of profound and poignant significance to us.
The subject
matter of the sculptures obviously came from the life of the vanished
epoch of their creation, and contained a large proportion of evident
history. It is this abnormal historic-mindedness of the primal
race - a chance circumstance operating, through coincidence, miraculously
At the Mountains of Madness |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Emma McChesney & Co. by Edna Ferber: Her coquetry vanished. Her smile fled with it. Her pretty pose
was abandoned. Mrs. T. A. Buck, wife, gave way to Emma McChesney
Buck, business woman. She stiffened a little, as though bracing
herself for a verbal encounter.
"You'll get used to it. I expected you to be jolted at the
first shock of it. I was, myself--when the idea came to me."
Buck passed a frenzied forefinger under his collar, as though it
had suddenly grown too tight for him.
"Used to it! I don't want to get used to it! It's
preposterous! You can't be serious! No woman would wear a
garment like that! For five years skirts have been tighter and
Emma McChesney & Co. |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia by Samuel Johnson: each other, of a quality to which solicitude can add nothing, and
from which detraction can take nothing away. Many were in love
with triflers like themselves, and many fancied that they were in
love when in truth they were only idle. Their affection was not
fixed on sense or virtue, and therefore seldom ended but in
vexation. Their grief, however, like their joy, was transient;
everything floated in their mind unconnected with the past or
future, so that one desire easily gave way to another, as a second
stone, cast into the water, effaces and confounds the circles of
the first.
With these girls she played as with inoffensive animals, and found
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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 Battle of the Books by Jonathan Swift: powers; unless mankind were then very different from what it is
now; for I look upon the mass or body of our people here in England
to be as Freethinkers, that is to say, as staunch unbelievers, as
any of the highest rank. But I conceive some scattered notions
about a superior power to be of singular use for the common people,
as furnishing excellent materials to keep children quiet when they
grow peevish, and providing topics of amusement in a tedious winter
night.
Lastly, it is proposed, as a singular advantage, that the
abolishing of Christianity will very much contribute to the uniting
of Protestants, by enlarging the terms of communion, so as to take
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