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 My Aunt Margaret's Mirror by Walter Scott:

he led the way into the next apartment.

This was a large room, hung with black, as if for a funeral. At the upper end was a table, or rather a species of altar, covered with the same lugubrious colour, on which lay divers objects resembling the usual implements of sorcery. These objects were not indeed visible as they advanced into the apartment; for the light which displayed them, being only that of two expiring lamps, was extremely faint. The master--to use the Italian phrase for persons of this description--approached the upper end of the room, with a genuflection like that of a Catholic to the crucifix, and at the same time crossed himself. The ladies

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

[20] Cf. "Mem." I. i. 2.

[21] Cf. Plat. "Apol." 19.

[22] Cf. "Anab." III. ii. 11; Aristoph. "Birds," 720.

[23] Delphi.

[24] Or, "the objects that meet us." See Prof. Jebb ad Theophr. "Ch." xxviii. 5.

As they listened to these words the judges murmured their dissent, some as disbelieving what was said, and others out of simple envy that Socrates should actually receive from heaven more than they themselves; whereupon Socrates returned to the charge. "Come," he said, "lend me your ears while I tell you something more, so that

The Apology

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Reminiscences of Tolstoy by Leo Tolstoy:

I am always thinking about Turgénieff. I am intensely fond of him, and sorry for him, and do nothing but read him. I live entirely with him. I shall certainly give a lecture on him, or write it to be read; tell Yúryef. "Enough"--read it; it is perfectly charming.

Unfortunately, my father's intended lecture on Turgénieff never came off. The Government forbade him to pay this last tribute to his dead friend, with whom he had quarreled all his life only because he could not be indifferent to him.

(To be continued)

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 A Straight Deal by Owen Wister:

colonies... I rejoice that America has resisted"'; page 150, 'The English people would not volunteer to fight the Americans and the King had to hire nearly 30,000 Hessians to help do the work.... The Americans had not sought separation; the King--not the English people--had forced it on them....'

"I am writing this... because, as I was glad to see, you did not mince words in naming several of the worse offenders." (He means certain school histories that I mentioned and shall mention later again.)

An official from Pittsburgh wrote thus:

"In common with many other people, I have had the same idea that England was not doing all she could in the war, that while her colonies were in