Today's Stichomancy for Jean Piaget
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sesame and Lilies by John Ruskin: them first for clear sight, so you must stay with them, that you may
share at last their just and mighty Passion. Passion, or
"sensation." I am not afraid of the word; still less of the thing.
You have heard many outcries against sensation lately; but, I can
tell you, it is not less sensation we want, but more. The ennobling
difference between one man and another,--between one animal and
another,--is precisely in this, that one feels more than another.
If we were sponges, perhaps sensation might not be easily got for
us; if we were earth-worms, liable at every instant to be cut in two
by the spade, perhaps too much sensation might not be good for us.
But being human creatures, IT IS good for us; nay, we are only human
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Eve and David by Honore de Balzac: herd girl, that very Jeanne Darc of whom we were speaking, and a
burgher named Jacques Coeur. The girl brings the power of virginity,
the strength of her arm; the burgher gives his gold, and the kingdom
is saved. The maid is taken prisoner, and the King, who could have
ransomed her, leaves her to be burned alive. The King allows his
courtier to accuse the great burgher of capital crime, and they rob
him and divide all his wealth among themselves. The spoils of an
innocent man, hunted down, brought to bay, and driven into exile by
the Law, went to enrich five noble houses; and the father of the
Archbishop of Bourges left the kingdom for ever without one sou of all
his possessions in France, and no resource but moneys remitted to
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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 An International Episode by Henry James: Everything looked as if it had received a coat of fresh paint
the day before--the red roofs, the green shutters, the clean,
bright browns and buffs of the housefronts. The flower beds
on the little lawns seemed to sparkle in the radiant air,
and the gravel in the short carriage sweeps to flash and twinkle.
Along the road came a hundred little basket phaetons, in which,
almost always, a couple of ladies were sitting--ladies in white
dresses and long white gloves, holding the reins and looking
at the two Englishmen, whose nationality was not elusive,
through thick blue veils tied tightly about their faces as if
to guard their complexions. At last the young men came within
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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 The Reign of King Edward the Third by William Shakespeare: Like as the wind doth beautify a sail,
And as a sail becomes the unseen wind,
So do her words her beauties, beauties words.
O, that I were a honey gathering bee,
To bear the comb of virtue from this flower,
And not a poison sucking envious spider,
To turn the juice I take to deadly venom!
Religion is austere and beauty gentle;
Too strict a guardian for so fair a ward!
O, that she were, as is the air, to me!
Why, so she is, for when I would embrace her,
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