| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Plain Tales from the Hills by Rudyard Kipling: heart. Moriarty read out his very soul for the benefit of any one
who was in the room between ten-thirty that night and two-forty-five
next morning.
From what he said, one gathered how immense an influence Mrs. Reiver
held over him, and how thoroughly he felt for his own lapse. His
whisperings cannot, of course, be put down here; but they were very
instructive as showing the errors of his estimates.
. . . . . . . . .
When the trouble was over, and his few acquaintances were pitying
him for the bad attack of jungle-fever that had so pulled him down,
Moriarty swore a big oath to himself and went abroad again with Mrs.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Finished by H. Rider Haggard: to break in upon his privacy, either where he dwells or upon his
journey. These are his very words, O King:
"'I, who am the most ancient man in Zululand, dwell with the
spirits of my fathers, who will not suffer strangers to come nigh
them and who, if they are offended, will bring great woes upon
the land. Moreover, I have sworn that while there is a king in
Zululand and I draw the breath of life, never again will I set
foot in a royal kraal, because when last I did so at the slaying
of the witch, Mameena, the king who is dead thought it well to
utter threats against me, and never more will I, the Opener of
Roads, be threatened by a mortal. Therefore if the King and his
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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 The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: When with like semblance it is sympathiz'd.
'Tis double death to drown in ken of shore;
He ten times pines that pines beholding food;
To see the salve doth make the wound ache more;
Great grief grieves most at that would do it good;
Deep woes roll forward like a gentle flood;
Who, being stopp'd, the bounding banks o'erflows;
Grief dallied with nor law nor limit knows.
'You mocking birds,' quoth she, 'your tunes entomb
Within your hollow-swelling feather'd breasts,
And in my hearing be you mute and dumb!
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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 The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Bronte Sisters: arid wilderness, declining to clear away the obstructions that
divided them, and secretly hoping that both would lose themselves
in the sand before they could be joined in one. And meantime he
had been quietly proceeding with his own affairs; perhaps, his
heart and head had been so full of his fair lady that he had had
but little thought to spare for others. Doubtless he had made his
first acquaintance with her - his first intimate acquaintance at
least - during his three months' sojourn at F-, for I now
recollected that he had once casually let fall an intimation that
his aunt and sister had a young friend staying with them at the
time, and this accounted for at least one-half his silence about
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall |
