Today's Stichomancy for Leonardo da Vinci

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from King James Bible:

mercy toward them that fear him.

PSA 103:12 As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.

PSA 103:13 Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him.

PSA 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.

PSA 103:15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.

PSA 103:16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

PSA 103:17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting

King James Bible

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Lamentable Tragedy of Locrine and Mucedorus by William Shakespeare:

Thou still art opposite is disposition: A more obscure servile habillament Beseems this enterprise.

ANSELMO. Than like a Florentine or Mountebank?

MUCEDORUS. Tis much too tedious; I dislike thy judgement: My mind is grafted on an humbler stock.

ANSELMO. Within my Closet does there hang a Cassock, Though base the weed is; twas a Shepherds,

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Beast in the Jungle by Henry James:

meeting multiplied. The event that thus promoted these occasions was the death of the ancient lady her great-aunt, under whose wing, since losing her mother, she had to such an extent found shelter, and who, though but the widowed mother of the new successor to the property, had succeeded--thanks to a high tone and a high temper-- in not forfeiting the supreme position at the great house. The deposition of this personage arrived but with her death, which, followed by many changes, made in particular a difference for the young woman in whom Marcher's expert attention had recognised from the first a dependent with a pride that might ache though it didn't bristle. Nothing for a long time had made him easier than the

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 Vicar of Tours by Honore de Balzac:

are men with whom we absolutely MUST live in harmony. Good heavens! when we are all striving and working to re-establish religion it is actually stupid, in a lieutenant who wants to be made a captain, to affront the priests. If you don't make up matters with that Abbe Troubert you needn't count on me; I shall abandon you. The minister of ecclesiastical affairs told me just now that Troubert was certain to be made bishop before long; if he takes a dislike to our family he could hinder me from being included in the next batch of peers. Don't you understand?"

These words explained to the naval officer the nature of Troubert's secret occupations, about which Birotteau often remarked in his silly