Today's Stichomancy for David Beckham

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Case of The Lamp That Went Out by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner:

shock of the short fall, awoke him and he sprang tip in alarm and listened intently to hear whether any one had been attracted by it. His first glance was towards the building behind the garden. There was no sound nor no light in the garden house but there was a light in the main building. While the tramp was wondering what hour it might be, the church clock answered him by ten loud strokes.

His head was already aching from the wine and he did not feel comfortable in the drafty old building. He came out from it, crept along to the spot where he had climbed the fence before, and after listening carefully and hearing nothing on either side, he climbed back to the road. The Street lay silent and empty, which was just

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Glaucus/The Wonders of the Shore by Charles Kingsley:

plates, may be found in Mr. Gosse's work on British sea-anemones and madrepores, which ought to be in every seaside library.

(6) Handbook to the Marine Aquarium of the Crystal Palace.

(7) An admirable paper on this extraordinary family may be found in the Zoological Society's Proceedings for July 1858, by Messrs. S. P. Woodward and the late lamented Lucas Barrett. See also Quatrefages, I. 82, or Synapta Duvernaei.

(8) Thalassema Neptuni (Forbes' British Star-Fishes, p. 259),

(9) The Londoner may see specimens of them at the Zoological Gardens and at the Crystal Palace; as also of the rare and beautiful Sabella, figured in the same plate; and of the

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Blix by Frank Norris:

very quiet, very matter-of-fact and complacent. She would be disturbed at nothing, excited at nothing; Blix was sure of that. She was placid, but it was the placidity not of the absence of emotion, but of emotion disdained. Not the placidity of the mollusk, but that of a mature and contemplative cat. Quietly she sat down at a corner table, quietly she removed her veil and gloves, and quietly she took in the room and its three occupants. Condy and Blix glued their eyes upon their coffee cups like guilty

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 On Horsemanship by Xenophon:

must begin with the body; an animal that has never yet been mounted can but present the vaguest indications of spirit. Confining ourselves therefore to the body, the first point to examine, we maintain, will be the feet. Just as a house would be of little use, however beautiful its upper stories, if the underlying foundations were not what they ought to be, so there is little use to be extracted from a horse, and in particular a war-horse,[4] if unsound in his feet, however excellent his other points; since he could not turn a single one of them to good account.[5]

[4] Or, "and that a charger, we will suppose." For the simile see "Mem." III. i. 7.

On Horsemanship