| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Gambara by Honore de Balzac: the promptings of transient excitement, a love-adventure in an age
when romances are written precisely because they never happen; to have
dreamed of balconies, guitars, stratagems, and bolts, enwrapped in
Almaviva's cloak; and, after inditing a poem in fancy, to stop at the
door of a house of ill-fame, and, crowning all, to discern in Rosina's
bashfulness a reticence imposed by the police--is not all this, I say,
an experience familiar to many a man who would not own it?
The most natural feelings are those we are least willing to confess,
and among them is fatuity. When the lesson is carried no further, the
Parisian profits by it, or forgets it, and no great harm is done. But
this would hardly be the case with this foreigner, who was beginning
Gambara |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Two Brothers by Honore de Balzac: several questions to the dragoon. She then learned that the nephew of
old Madame Hochon, the friend of her mother, played a considerable
part in literature. Philippe and his friend Giroudeau lived among a
circle of journalists, actresses, and booksellers, where they were
regarded in the light of cashiers. Philippe, who had been drinking
kirsch before posing, was loquacious. He boasted that he was about to
become a great man. But when Joseph asked a question as to his
pecuniary resources he was dumb. It so happened that there was no
newspaper on the following day, it being a fete, and to finish the
picture Philippe proposed to sit again on the morrow. Joseph told him
that the Salon was close at hand, and as he did not have the money to
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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 Herbert West: Reanimator by H. P. Lovecraft: consciousness said they did not belong to the stranger, but were
specimens collected for bacteriological analysis in the course
of investigations on the transmission of germ diseases. He ordered
them burnt as soon as possible in the capacious fireplace. To
the police we both declared ignorance of our late companion’s
identity. He was, West nervously said, a congenial stranger whom
we had met at some downtown bar of uncertain location. We had
all been rather jovial, and West and I did not wish to have our
pugnacious companion hunted down.
That same night saw the beginning
of the second Arkham horror -- the horror that to me eclipsed
Herbert West: Reanimator |
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 A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: burn that accursed boat. Oh, he did it! As for him, he became I don't
know what; he staggered about like a man who can't carry his wine.
Then he went away and was gone ten days, and after he returned he put
himself where you saw him, and since he has been there he has never
said one word."
The fisherman related this history rapidly and more simply than I can
write it. The lower classes make few comments as they relate a thing;
they tell the fact that strikes them, and present it as they felt it.
This tale was made as sharply incisive as the blow of an axe.
"I shall not go to Batz," said Pauline, when we came to the upper
shore of the lake.
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