Today's Stichomancy for Kirk Douglas
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Life in the Iron-Mills by Rebecca Davis: the streets of a city as crowded and vile as this, and did not
fail. His disciple, showing Him to-night to cultured hearers,
showing the clearness of the God-power acting through Him,
shrank back from one coarse fact; that in birth and habit the
man Christ was thrown up from the lowest of the people: his
flesh, their flesh; their blood, his blood; tempted like them,
to brutalize day by day; to lie, to steal: the actual slime and
want of their hourly life, and the wine-press he trod alone.
Yet, is there no meaning in this perpetually covered truth? If
the son of the carpenter had stood in the church that night, as
he stood with the fishermen and harlots by the sea of Galilee,
Life in the Iron-Mills |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare: I beare no hatred, blessed man: for loe
My intercession likewise steads my foe
Fri. Be plaine good Son, rest homely in thy drift,
Ridling confession, findes but ridling shrift
Rom. Then plainly know my hearts deare Loue is set,
On the faire daughter of rich Capulet:
As mine on hers, so hers is set on mine;
And all combin'd, saue what thou must combine
By holy marriage: when and where, and how,
We met, we wooed, and made exchange of vow:
Ile tell thee as we passe, but this I pray,
Romeo and Juliet |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Jerusalem Delivered by Torquato Tasso: LI
The hardy couple on their way forth wend,
And met a host that on them roar and gape,
Of savage beasts, tofore unseen, unkend,
Differing in voice, in semblance, and in shape;
All monsters which hot Afric doth forthsend,
Twixt Nilus, Atlas, and the southern cape,
Were all there met, and all wild beasts besides
Hyrcania breeds, or Hyrcane forest hides.
LII
But yet that fierce, that strange and savage host
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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 Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: five cases out of ten, either brings some dainties with him, or
privately pays the steward for extra rations, the difference in price
becomes almost nominal. Air comparatively fit to breathe, food
comparatively varied, and the satisfaction of being still privately a
gentleman, may thus be had almost for the asking. Two of my fellow-
passengers in the second cabin had already made the passage by the
cheaper fare, and declared it was an experiment not to be repeated.
As I go on to tell about my steerage friends, the reader will
perceive that they were not alone in their opinion. Out of ten with
whom I was more or less intimate, I am sure not fewer than five
vowed, if they returned, to travel second cabin; and all who had left
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