Today's Stichomancy for David Ben Gurion

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Beauty and The Beast by Bayard Taylor:

undeveloped instinct of culture, and a crude, half-conscious worship of beauty,--both of which qualities found just enough nourishment in the life of the capital to tantalize and never satisfy his nature. He was excited by his new experience, but hardly happier.

Athough but three-and-twenty, he would never know the rich, vital glow with which youth rushes to clasp all forms of sensation.

He had seen, almost daily, in his father's castle, excess in its most excessive development. It had grown to be repulsive, and he knew not how to fill the void in his life. With a single spark of genius, and a little more culture, he might have become a passable

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Unseen World and Other Essays by John Fiske:

withal a modicum of righteous indignation at the unblushing heresy of the author, not unmixed with a little scornful pity at his inability to believe very preposterous stories upon very meagre evidence. "Conservative" polemics of this sort have doubtless their function. They serve to purge scientific literature of the awkward and careless statements too often made by writers not sufficiently instructed or cautious, which in the absence of hostile criticism might get accepted by the unthinking reader along with the truths which they accompany. Most scientific and philosophical works have their defects; and it is fortunate that there is such a thing as dogmatic ardour in the

The Unseen World and Other Essays

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Duchess of Padua by Oscar Wilde:

Though I am cast away upon the sea Which men call Desolation.

GUIDO

O God, God!

DUCHESS

But you will stay: listen, I love you, Guido. [She waits a little.] Is echo dead, that when I say I love you There is no answer?

GUIDO

Everything is dead,

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 Tanach:

Job 14: 20 Thou prevailest for ever against him, and he passeth; Thou changest his countenance, and sendest him away.

Job 14: 21 His sons come to honour, and he knoweth it not; and they are brought low, but he regardeth them not.

Job 14: 22 But his flesh grieveth for him, and his soul mourneth over him.

Job 15: 1 Then answered Eliphaz the Temanite, and said:

Job 15: 2 Should a wise man make answer with windy knowledge, and fill his belly with the east wind?

Job 15: 3 Should he reason with unprofitable talk, or with speeches wherewith he can do no good?

Job 15: 4 Yea, thou doest away with fear, and impairest devotion before God.

Job 15: 5 For thine iniquity teacheth thy mouth, and thou choosest the tongue of the crafty.

Job 15: 6 Thine own mouth condemneth thee, and not I; yea, thine own lips testify against thee.

Job 15: 7 Art thou the first man that was born? Or wast thou brought forth before the hills?

Job 15: 8 Dost thou hearken in the council of God? And dost thou restrain wisdom to thyself?

The Tanach