Today's Stichomancy for Will Smith
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Bickerstaff-Partridge Papers by Jonathan Swift: and said, Oh! sir, this is no time for jesting, but for repenting
those fooleries, as I do now from the very bottom of my heart. By
what I can gather from you, said I, the observations and
predictions you printed, with your almanacks, were mere
impositions on the people. He reply'd, if it were otherwise I
should have the less to answer for. We have a common form for all
those things, as to foretelling the weather, we never meddle with
that, but leave it to the printer, who takes it out of any old
almanack, as he thinks fit; the rest was my own invention, to
make my almanack sell, having a wife to maintain, and no other
way to get my bread; for mending old shoes is a poor livelihood;
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from An International Episode by Henry James: husband were here; but he's dreadfully confined to New York.
I suppose you think that is very strange--for a gentleman.
But you see we haven't any leisure class."
Mrs. Westgate's discourse, delivered in a soft, sweet voice,
flowed on like a miniature torrent, and was interrupted by a
hundred little smiles, glances, and gestures, which might have
figured the irregularities and obstructions of such a stream.
Lord Lambeth listened to her with, it must be confessed,
a rather ineffectual attention, although he indulged in a good
many little murmurs and ejaculations of assent and deprecation.
He had no great faculty for apprehending generalizations.
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Eugenie Grandet by Honore de Balzac: years old, and possessed the estate of Bonfons (Boni Fontis), worth
seven thousand francs a year; he expected to inherit the property of
his uncle the notary and that of another uncle, the Abbe Cruchot, a
dignitary of the chapter of Saint-Martin de Tours, both of whom were
thought to be very rich. These three Cruchots, backed by a goodly
number of cousins, and allied to twenty families in the town, formed a
party, like the Medici in Florence; like the Medici, the Cruchots had
their Pazzi.
Madame des Grassins, mother of a son twenty-three years of age, came
assiduously to play cards with Madame Grandet, hoping to marry her
dear Adolphe to Mademoiselle Eugenie. Monsieur des Grassins, the
 Eugenie Grandet |
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 Damnation of Theron Ware by Harold Frederic: Meditation, it is true, hardly threw fresh light upon
the matter. It was incredible, of course, that there
should be anything wrong. To even shape a thought of Alice
in connection with gallantry would be wholly impossible.
Nor could it be said that Gorringe, in his new capacity
as a professing church-member, had disclosed any sign
of ulterior motives, or of insincerity. Yet there the
facts were. While Theron pondered them, their mystery,
if they involved a mystery, baffled him altogether.
But when he had finished, he found himself all the same
convinced that neither Alice nor Gorringe would be free
 The Damnation of Theron Ware |
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