| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Master of Ballantrae by Robert Louis Stevenson: said I. "I know not to which it is more perilous, the soul or the
reason; but you go the way to murder both."
"You cannot understand," said he. "You had never such mountains of
bitterness upon your heart."
"And if it were no more," I added, "you will surely goad the man to
some extremity."
"To the contrary; I am breaking his spirit," says my lord.
Every morning for hard upon a week my lord took his same place upon
the bench. It was a pleasant place, under the green acacias, with
a sight upon the bay and shipping, and a sound (from some way off)
of marines singing at their employ. Here the two sate without
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft: the ruined Whateley farmhouse when the horror escaped. Men looked
at one another and muttered. Then they looked down the hill. Apparently
the horror had descended by a route much the same as that of its
ascent. To speculate was futile. Reason, logic, and normal ideas
of motivation stood confounded. Only old Zebulon, who was not
with the group, could have done justice to the situation or suggested
a plausible explanation.
Thursday night began much like the
others, but it ended less happily. The whippoorwills in the glen
had screamed with such unusual persistence that many could not
sleep, and about 3 A.M. all the party telephones rang tremulously.
The Dunwich Horror |
