Today's Stichomancy for Woody Allen
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Concerning Christian Liberty by Martin Luther: great name, and was prepared to keep silence, and to accept as my
judge either the Archbishop of Treves, or the Bishop of Naumburg;
and thus it was done and concluded. While this was being done
with good hope of success, lo! that other and greater enemy of
yours, Eccius, rushed in with his Leipsic disputation, which he
had undertaken against Carlstadt, and, having taken up a new
question concerning the primacy of the Pope, turned his arms
unexpectedly against me, and completely overthrew the plan for
peace. Meanwhile Charles Miltitz was waiting, disputations were
held, judges were being chosen, but no decision was arrived at.
And no wonder! for by the falsehoods, pretences, and arts of
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) by Dante Alighieri: productions of the ancients, and the author has been termed the
last of the fathers of the church. It is uncertain whether they
were not delivered originally in the French tongue.
That the part he acts in the present Poem should be assigned to
him. appears somewhat remarkable, when we consider that he
severely censured the new festival established in honour of the
Immaculate Conception of the virgin, and opposed the doctrine
itself with the greatest vigour, as it supposed her being
honoured with a privilegewhich belonged to Christ Alone Dr.
Maclaine's Mosheim, v. iii. cent. xii. p. ii. c. 3 - 19.
v. 95. Our Veronica ] The holy handkerchief, then preserved at
The Divine Comedy (translated by H.F. Cary) |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Some Reminiscences by Joseph Conrad: hundred and sixty bunks for emigrants were put together in the
'tween decks by industrious carpenters while we lay in the
Victoria Dock, but never an emigrant turned up in Rouen--of
which, being a humane person, I confess I was glad. Some
gentlemen from Paris--I think there were three of them, and one
was said to be the Chairman--turned up indeed and went from end
to end of the ship, knocking their silk hats cruelly against the
deck-beams. I attended them personally, and I can vouch for it
that the interest they took in things was intelligent enough,
though, obviously, they had never seen anything of the sort
before. Their faces as they went ashore wore a cheerfully
Some Reminiscences |
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 Rescue by Joseph Conrad: The tide has turned. Ya, Tuan. The tide has turned."
Lingard looked downward where the water could be seen, gliding
past the ship's side, moving smoothly, streaked with lines of
froth, across the illumined circle thrown round the brig by the
lights on her poop. Air bubbles sparkled, lines of darkness,
ripples of glitter appeared, glided, went astern without a
splash, without a trickle, without a plaint, without a break. The
unchecked gentleness of the flow captured the eye by a subtle
spell, fastened insidiously upon the mind a disturbing sense of
the irretrievable. The ebbing of the sea athwart the lonely sheen
of flames resembled the eternal ebb-tide of time; and when at
The Rescue |
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