Today's Stichomancy for Robert Downey Jr.
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Sarrasine by Honore de Balzac: combined in equal degree purity of tone, exquisite feeling, accuracy
of time and intonation, science, soul, and delicacy. She was the type
of that hidden poesy, the link which connects all the arts and which
always eludes those who seek it. Modest, sweet, well-informed, and
clever, none could eclipse Marianina unless it was her mother.
Have you ever met one of those women whose startling beauty defies the
assaults of time, and who seem at thirty-six more desirable than they
could have been fifteen years earlier? Their faces are impassioned
souls; they fairly sparkle; each feature gleams with intelligence;
each possesses a brilliancy of its own, especially in the light. Their
captivating eyes attract or repel, speak or are silent; their gait is
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: really savage, as before illustrated in fig. 9 (p. 58). Although
their ears are thus to a large extent protected, yet they often
get much torn in old male cats during their mutual battles.
The same movement is very striking in tigers, leopards,
&c., whilst growling over their food in menageries.
The lynx has remarkably long ears; and their retraction, when one
of these animals is approached in its cage, is very conspicuous,
and is eminently expressive of its savage disposition.
Even one of the Eared Seals, the _Otariapusilla_, which has
very small ears, draws them backwards, when it makes a savage
rush at the legs of its keeper.
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Heroes by Charles Kingsley: happened to be rich, but according to his skill, and his
strength, and courage, and the number of things which he
could do. For they were but grown-up children, though they
were right noble children too; and it was with them as it is
now at school - the strongest and cleverest boy, though he be
poor, leads all the rest.
Now, while they were young and simple they loved fairy tales,
as you do now. All nations do so when they are young: our
old forefathers did, and called their stories 'Sagas.' I
will read you some of them some day - some of the Eddas, and
the Volusp…, and Beowulf, and the noble old Romances. The
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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 In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: which the best of the male dancers held us spellbound through a
Gilbert Island ballet.
Almost from the first it was apparent that the people of the city
were defeated. I might have thought them even good, only I had the
other troop before my eyes to correct my standard, and remind me
continually of 'the little more, and how much it is.' Perceiving
themselves worsted, the choir of Butaritari grew confused,
blundered, and broke down; amid this hubbub of unfamiliar intervals
I should not myself have recognised the slip, but the audience were
quick to catch it, and to jeer. To crown all, the Makin company
began a dance of truly superlative merit. I know not what it was
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