| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon: daughters in attendance on the {kanephoroi} at the Panathenaic and
other festival processions. See Arist. "Eccles." 730 foll.;
Boeckh, "P. E. A." IV. x. (Eng. tr. G. Cornewall Lewis, p. 538).
[5] Or, reading {megas men gar o agon, mega de kai to apo ton tekhnon
kai ton oikeion apienai}, after Zurborg ("Xen. de Reditibus
Libellus," Berolini, MDCCCLXXVI.), transl. "since it is severe
enough to enter the arena of war, but all the worse when that
implies the abandonment of your trade and your domestic concerns."
[6] Or, "instead of finding themselves brigaded as nowadays with a
motley crew of Lydians," etc.
[7] Zurborg, after Cobet, omits the words so rendered.
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James: little taper at his smoky lamp, and lo it continued to twinkle.
But the light it gave me just showed me how much more I wanted. I
was pursued of course by letters from Mrs. Saltram which I didn't
scruple not to read, though quite aware her embarrassments couldn't
but be now of the gravest. I sacrificed to propriety by simply
putting them away, and this is how, one day as my absence drew to
an end, my eye, while I rummaged in my desk for another paper, was
caught by a name on a leaf that had detached itself from the
packet. The allusion was to Miss Anvoy, who, it appeared, was
engaged to be married to Mr. George Gravener; and the news was two
months old. A direct question of Mrs. Saltram's had thus remained
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Four Arthurian Romances by Chretien DeTroyes: and all the others rapidly. Each one, wishing to be of the
party, follows his own will and starts away. Some were armed,
but there were not a few without their arms. My lord Gawain was
armed, and he bade two squires lead by the bridle two extra
steeds. And as they thus approached the forest, they saw Kay's
horse running out; and they recognised him, and saw that both
reins of the bridle were broken. The horse was running wild, the
stirrup-straps all stained with blood, and the saddle-bow was
broken and damaged. Every one was chagrined at this, and they
nudged each other and shook their heads. My lord Gawain was
riding far in advance of the rest of the party, and it was not
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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 Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: the one when the source should yield the other. Animal fury and
orgiastic license here whipped themselves to daemoniac heights
by howls and squawking ecstacies that tore and reverberated through
those nighted woods like pestilential tempests from the gulfs
of hell. Now and then the less organized ululation would cease,
and from what seemed a well-drilled chorus of hoarse voices would
rise in sing-song chant that hideous phrase or ritual:
"Ph'nglui
mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn."
Then the men, having
reached a spot where the trees were thinner, came suddenly in
Call of Cthulhu |
