| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Out of Time's Abyss by Edgar Rice Burroughs: roof of a square, blue building surmounted by seven poles bearing
seven skulls. This then, thought Bradley, is the Blue Place of
Seven Skulls.
Over the opening in the roof was a grated covering, and this the
Wieroo removed. The thing then tied a piece of fiber rope to one
of Bradley's ankles and rolled him over the edge of the opening.
All was dark below and for an instant the Englishman came as near
to experiencing real terror as he had ever come in his life before.
As he rolled off into the black abyss he felt the rope tighten
about his ankle and an instant later he was stopped with a sudden
jerk to swing pendulumlike, head downward. Then the creature
Out of Time's Abyss |
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: in stark, utter, ultimate frenzy.
'Eh-y-ya-ya-yahaah - e'yayayaaaa...
ngh'aaaaa... ngh'aaa... h'yuh... h'yuh... HELP! HELP! ...ff -
ff - ff - FATHER! FATHER! YOG-SOTHOTH!...'
But that was all.
The pallid group in the road, still reeling at the indisputably
English syllables that had poured thickly and thunderously down
from the frantic vacancy beside that shocking altar-stone, were
never to hear such syllables again. Instead, they jumped violently
at the terrific report which seemed to rend the hills; the deafening,
cataclysmic peal whose source, be it inner earth or sky, no hearer
The Dunwich Horror |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Protagoras by Plato: idea or conviction that some other thing would be better and is also
attainable, when he might do the better. And this inferiority of a man to
himself is merely ignorance, as the superiority of a man to himself is
wisdom.
They all assented.
And is not ignorance the having a false opinion and being deceived about
important matters?
To this also they unanimously assented.
Then, I said, no man voluntarily pursues evil, or that which he thinks to
be evil. To prefer evil to good is not in human nature; and when a man is
compelled to choose one of two evils, no one will choose the greater when
|
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 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith: It's a way I have got. When I travel, I always chose to regulate my
own supper. Let the cook be called. No offence I hope, sir.
HARDCASTLE. O no, sir, none in the least; yet I don't know how; our
Bridget, the cook-maid, is not very communicative upon these
occasions. Should we send for her, she might scold us all out of the
house.
HASTINGS. Let's see your list of the larder then. I ask it as a
favour. I always match my appetite to my bill of fare.
MARLOW. (To HARDCASTLE, who looks at them with surprise.) Sir, he's
very right, and it's my way too.
HARDCASTLE. Sir, you have a right to command here. Here, Roger,
She Stoops to Conquer |
