| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Gentle Grafter by O. Henry: dollars' worth of the bonds was to secure a loan of eighty-seven
dollars and fifty cents. On the farming lands of Colonel Rockingham,
Judge Pendergast was able to obtain, on a ninth mortgage, the sum of
fifty dollars. You will find the amount, one hundred and thirty-seven
fifty, correct."
"A railroad president," said I, looking this Tucker in the eye, "and
the owner of a thousand acres of land; and yet--"
"Gentlemen," says Tucker, "The railroad is ten miles long. There don't
any train run on it except when the crew goes out in the pines and
gathers enough lightwood knots to get up steam. A long time ago, when
times was good, the net earnings used to run as high as eighteen
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: - the scattered plasticity of that nameless sky-spawn was nebulously
recombining in its hateful original form, whilst its distance
widened every second as the Alert gained impetus from its mounting
steam.
That was all. After that Johansen only brooded over the
idol in the cabin and attended to a few matters of food for himself
and the laughing maniac by his side. He did not try to navigate
after the first bold flight, for the reaction had taken something
out of his soul. Then came the storm of April 2nd, and a gathering
of the clouds about his consciousness. There is a sense of spectral
whirling through liquid gulfs of infinity, of dizzying rides through
Call of Cthulhu |
