| 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: ever rose from the waters after the earth had flung off the moon
and the Old Ones had seeped down, from the stars - which had come
to be shunned as vaguely and namelessly evil. Cities built there
had crumbled before their time, and had been found suddenly deserted.
Then when the first great earth buckling had convulsed the region
in the Comanchian Age, a frightful line of peaks had shot suddenly
up amidst the most appalling din and chaos - and earth had received
her loftiest and most terrible mountains.
If the scale of the
carvings was correct, these abhorred things must have been much
over forty thousand feet high - radically vaster than even the
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 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: Enter HASTINGS.
HASTINGS. Bless me! I quite forgot to tell her that I intended to
prepare at the bottom of the garden. Marlow here, and in spirits too!
MARLOW. Give me joy, George! Crown me, shadow me with laurels!
Well, George, after all, we modest fellows don't want for success
among the women.
HASTINGS. Some women, you mean. But what success has your honour's
modesty been crowned with now, that it grows so insolent upon us?
MARLOW. Didn't you see the tempting, brisk, lovely little thing, that
runs about the house with a bunch of keys to its girdle?
HASTINGS. Well, and what then?
She Stoops to Conquer |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Girl with the Golden Eyes by Honore de Balzac: beyond their friends, whom they exploit; then of evenings, when they
lay their heads on their pillows, they weigh men as a miser weighs his
gold pieces. The one are vexed at an aimless impertinence, and allow
themselves to be ridiculed by the diplomatic, who make them dance for
them by pulling what is the main string of these puppets--their
vanity. Thus, a day comes when those who had nothing have something,
and those who had something have nothing. The latter look at their
comrades who have achieved positions as cunning fellows; their hearts
may be bad, but their heads are strong. "He is very strong!" is the
supreme praise accorded to those who have attained /quibuscumque
viis/, political rank, a woman, or a fortune. Amongst them are to be
The Girl with the Golden Eyes |
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 Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: months; but he never distinguished HER by any particular
attention; and, consequently, after a moderate period of
extravagant and wild admiration, her fancy for him gave way,
and others of the regiment, who treated her with more
distinction, again became her favourites."
It may be easily believed, that however little of novelty could be
added to their fears, hopes, and conjectures, on this interesting
subject, by its repeated discussion, no other could detain them
from it long, during the whole of the journey. From Elizabeth's
thoughts it was never absent. Fixed there by the keenest of all
anguish, self-reproach, she could find no interval of ease or
Pride and Prejudice |
