| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Alkahest by Honore de Balzac: of which the Claes pride had carved a pair of shuttles. The recess of
the doorway, which was built of freestone, was topped by a pointed
arch bearing a little shrine surmounted by a cross, in which was a
statuette of Sainte-Genevieve plying her distaff. Though time had left
its mark upon the delicate workmanship of portal and shrine, the
extreme care taken of it by the servants of the house allowed the
passers-by to note all its details.
The casing of the door, formed by fluted pilasters, was dark gray in
color, and so highly polished that it shone as if varnished. On either
side of the doorway, on the ground-floor, were two windows, which
resembled all the other windows of the house. The casing of white
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: and ill-conducted bouts among the mill-workers were common, and
occasionally professional talent of low grade was imported. This
late winter night there had been such a match; evidently with
disastrous results, since two timorous Poles had come to us with
incoherently whispered entreaties to attend to a very secret and
desperate case. We followed them to an abandoned barn, where the
remnants of a crowd of frightened foreigners were watching a silent
black form on the floor.
The match had been between Kid O’Brien
-- a lubberly and now quaking youth with a most un-Hibernian hooked
nose -- and Buck Robinson, "The Harlem Smoke." The negro had been
Herbert West: Reanimator |
