| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: time contributed somewhat, I fancy, to the demoralization of Europe
and the clergy."
"Somewhat!" exclaimed the marchioness. "Have you read nothing, pray?"
"La Zambinella," I continued, smiling, "had boldly crossed her legs,
and as she prattled swung the upper one, a duchess' attitude very well
suited to her capricious type of beauty, overflowing with a certain
attractive suppleness. She had laid aside her stage costume, and wore
a waist which outlined a slender figure, displayed to the best
advantage by a /panier/ and a satin dress embroidered with blue
flowers. Her breast, whose treasures were concealed by a coquettish
arrangement of lace, was of a gleaming white. Her hair was dressed
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: elder, and we ought to honor age!"
"Bah!" said the landlord, "my wife's bed has several mattresses; take
one off and put it on the floor."
So saying, he went and shut the window, making all the noise that
prudent operation demanded.
"I accept," said the merchant; "in fact I will admit," he added,
lowering his voice and looking at the two Frenchmen, "that I desired
it. My boatmen seem to me suspicious. I am not sorry to spend the
night with two brave young men, two French soldiers, for, between
ourselves, I have a hundred thousand francs in gold and diamonds in my
valise."
|
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: He too, returning, through the curtain comes,
And the new age forgets us and goes on.
XLII
SING me a song of a lad that is gone,
Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.
Mull was astern, Rum on the port,
Eigg on the starboard bow;
Glory of youth glowed in his soul:
Where is that glory now?
|
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 Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: typhoid stalked leeringly through Arkham. It is by that satanic
scourge that most recall the year, for truly terror brooded with
bat-wings over the piles of coffins in the tombs of Christchurch
Cemetery; yet for me there is a greater horror in that time --
a horror known to me alone now that Herbert West has disappeared.
West and I were doing post-graduate work in summer classes at
the medical school of Miskatonic University, and my friend had
attained a wide notoriety because of his experiments leading toward
the revivification of the dead. After the scientific slaughter
of uncounted small animals the freakish work had ostensibly stopped
by order of our sceptical dean, Dr. Allan Halsey; though West
Herbert West: Reanimator |
