Today's Stichomancy for John D. Rockefeller

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:

speak, and died with a horrible gasp, his eyes haggard with fear. The poor girl, who saw death for the first time, fell on her knees and burst into tears. La Bougival closed the old man's eyes and straightened him on the bed; then she ran to call Savinien; but the heirs, who stood at the corner of the street, like crows watching till a horse is buried before they scratch at the ground and turn it over with beak and claw, flocked in with the celerity of birds of prey.

CHAPTER XV

THE DOCTOR'S WILL

While these events were taking place the post master had hurried home to open the mysterious package and know its contents.

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

hatch--I see fire in it.'

"The coal-dust suspended in the air of the hold had glowed dull-red at the moment of the explosion. In the twinkling of an eye, in an infinitesimal fraction of a second since the first tilt of the bench, I was sprawling full length on the cargo. I picked myself up and scram- bled out. It was quick like a rebound. The deck was a wilderness of smashed timber, lying crosswise like trees in a wood after a hurricane; an immense curtain of soiled rags waved gently before me--it was the mainsail blown to strips. I thought, The masts will be toppling over

Youth

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Gobseck by Honore de Balzac:

poison the Devil himself.'

"Something in my face suddenly brought back the usual cold, impassive expression to his.

" 'You don't understand it,' he said, and sitting down by the hearth, he put a tin saucepan full of milk on the brazier.--'Will you breakfast with me?' continued he. 'Perhaps there will be enough here for two.'

" 'Thanks,' said I, 'I do not breakfast till noon.'

"I had scarcely spoken before hurried footsteps sounded from the passage. The stranger stopped at Gobseck's door and rapped; there was that in the knock which suggested a man transported with rage. Gobseck

Gobseck

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 Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon:

him.[1] The polemarchs mess with him and share his quarters, so that by dint of constant intercourse they may be all the better able to consult in common in case of need. Besides the polemarch three other members of the peers[2] share the royal quarters, mess, etc. The duty of these is to attend to all matters of commisariat,[3] in order that the king and the rest may have unbroken leisure to attend to affairs of actual warfare.

[1] I.e. "the Thirty." See "Ages." i. 7; "Hell." III. iv. 2; Plut. "Ages." 6 (Clough, iv. 6); Aristot. "Pol." ii. 9, 29.

[2] For these {oi omoioi}, see "Cyrop." I. v. 5; "Hell." III. iii. 5.

[3] Lit. "supplies and necessaries."