| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson: retired lodging. My baggage being not yet arrived, I told him I
supposed I should require his caution with the people of the house; and
explained that, my sister being come for a while to keep house with me,
I should be wanting two chambers. This was all very well; but the
trouble was that Mr. Balfour in his letter of recommendation had
condescended on a great deal of particulars, and never a word of any
sister in the case. I could see my Dutchman was extremely suspicious;
and viewing me over the rims of a great pair of spectacles - he was a
poor, frail body, and reminded me of an infirm rabbit - he began to
question me close.
Here I fell in a panic. Suppose he accept my tale (thinks I), suppose
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from At the Mountains of Madness by H. P. Lovecraft: one the tentacled starfish head had been removed; and as we drew
near we saw that the manner of removal looked more like some hellish
tearing or suction than like any ordinary form of cleavage. Their
noisome dark-green ichor formed a large, spreading pOOl; but its
stench was half overshadowed by the newer and stranger stench,
here more pungent than at any other point along our route. Only
when we had come very close to the sprawling obstructions could
we trace that second, unexplainable fetor to any immediate source
- and the instant we did so Danforth, remembering certain very
vivid sculptures of the Old Ones’ history in the Permian Age one
hundred and fifty million years ago, gave vent to a nerve-tortured
At the Mountains of Madness |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: From place to place, which to herself thus said:
III
"This day Argantes strong, and Solyman,
Strange things have done, and purchased great renown,
Among our foes out of the walls they ran,
Their rams they broke and rent their engines down:
I used my bow, of naught else boast I can,
My self stood safe meanwhile within this town,
And happy was my shot, and prosperous too,
But that was all a woman's hand could do.
IV
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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 Within the Tides by Joseph Conrad: He lay on his back, sighing profoundly in the dark, and suddenly
beheld his very own self, carrying a small bizarre lamp, reflected
in a long mirror inside a room in an empty and unfurnished palace.
In this startling image of himself he recognised somebody he had to
follow - the frightened guide of his dream. He traversed endless
galleries, no end of lofty halls, innumerable doors. He lost
himself utterly - he found his way again. Room succeeded room. At
last the lamp went out, and he stumbled against some object which,
when he stooped for it, he found to be very cold and heavy to lift.
The sickly white light of dawn showed him the head of a statue.
Its marble hair was done in the bold lines of a helmet, on its lips
Within the Tides |
