Today's Stichomancy for M. C. Escher

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ursula by Honore de Balzac:

pecuniary position. It is all the more to be regretted because Savinien has, for the moment, tied our hands by allowing the authorities to arrest him.

If my nephew had not shown a foolish passion for me and sacrificed our relationship to the vanity of a lover, we could have sent him to travel in Germany while his affairs were being settled here. Monsieur de Kergarouet intended to get him a place in the War office; but this imprisonment for debt will paralyze such efforts. You must pay his debts; let him enter the navy; he will make his way like the true Portenduere that he is; he has the fire of the family in his beautiful black eyes, and we will all help him.

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Tanach:

1_Chronicles 4: 26 And the sons of Mishma: Hammuel his son, Zaccur his son, Shimei his son.

1_Chronicles 4: 27 And Shimei had sixteen sons and six daughters; but his brethren had not many children, neither did all their family multiply, like to the children of Judah.

1_Chronicles 4: 28 And they dwelt at Beer-sheba, and Moladah, and Hazar-shual;

1_Chronicles 4: 29 and at Bilhah, and at Ezem, and at Tolad;

1_Chronicles 4: 30 and at Bethuel, and at Hormah, and at Ziklag;

1_Chronicles 4: 31 and at Beth-marcaboth, and Hazar-susim, and at Beth-biri, and at Shaaraim. These were their cities unto the reign of David.

1_Chronicles 4: 32 And their villages were Etam, and Ain, Rimmon, and Tochen, and Ashan, five cities;

1_Chronicles 4: 33 and all their villages that were round about the same cities, unto Baal. These were their habitations, and they have their genealogy.

1_Chronicles 4: 34 And Meshobab, and Jamlech, and Joshah the son of Amaziah;

1_Chronicles 4: 35 and Joel, and Jehu the son of Joshibiah, the son of Seraiah, the son of Asiel;

1_Chronicles 4: 36 and Elioenai, and Jaakobah, and Jeshoaiah, and Asaiah, and Adiel, and Jesimiel, and Benaiah;

The Tanach

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Songs of Innocence and Experience by William Blake:

And hid from him my heart's delight.

So he took his wings, and fled; Then the morn blushed rosy red. I dried my tears, and armed my fears With ten thousand shields and spears.

Soon my Angel came again; I was armed, he came in vain; For the time of youth was fled, And grey hairs were on my head.

THE TIGER

Tiger, tiger, burning bright

Songs of Innocence and Experience

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 Scenes from a Courtesan's Life by Honore de Balzac:

liberty, already so illusory, of the prison-yard. The "nark" (in French, le Mouton or le coqueur) is a spy who affects to be sentenced for some serious offence, and whose skill consists in pretending to be a chum. The "chum," in thieves' slang, is a skilled thief, a professional who has cut himself adrift from society, and means to remain a thief all his days, and continues faithful through thick and thin to the laws of the swell-mob.

Crime and madness have a certain resemblance. To see the prisoners of the Conciergerie in the yard, or the madmen in the garden of an asylum, is much the same thing. Prisoners and lunatics walk to and fro, avoiding each other, looking up with more or less strange or