Today's Stichomancy for Sofia Vergara

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Koran:

The believers are only those who believe in God and His Apostle, and then doubt not, but fight strenuously with their wealth and persons in God's cause-these are the truth-tellers!

Say, 'Will ye teach God your religion? when God knows what is in the heavens and what is in the earth, and God all things doth know!

They deem that they oblige thee by becoming Muslims. Say, 'Nay! deem not that ye oblige me by your becoming Muslims! God obliges you, by directing you to the faith, if ye do speak the truth!'

Verily, God knows the unseen things of the heavens and the earth, and God on what ye do doth look.

THE CHAPTER OF Q

The Koran

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Confessio Amantis by John Gower:

God wot; for he the Dore unschette So prively that non it herde, The softe pas and forth he ferde 4970 Unto the bed wher that sche slepte, Al sodeinliche and in he crepte, And hire in bothe his Armes tok. With that this worthi wif awok, Which thurgh tendresce of wommanhiede Hire vois hath lost for pure drede, That o word speke sche ne dar: And ek he bad hir to be war,

Confessio Amantis

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov:

another bag, then went out once more and this time brought the postman's sword on a big belt, of the pattern of that long flat blade with which Judith is portrayed by the bedside of Holofernes in cheap woodcuts. Laying the bags along the wall, he went out into the outer room, sat down there and lighted his pipe.

"Perhaps you'd like some tea after your journey?" Raissa inquired.

"How can we sit drinking tea?" said the postman, frowning. "We must make haste and get warm, and then set off, or we shall be late for the mail train. We'll stay ten minutes and then get on our way. Only be so good as to show us the way."

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 She Stoops to Conquer by Oliver Goldsmith:

wretch, meanly seeking to carry off a fortune, you should be the last man in the world I would apply to for assistance. But Miss Neville's person is all I ask, and that is mine, both from her deceased father's consent, and her own inclination.

MARLOW. Happy man! You have talents and art to captivate any woman. I'm doom'd to adore the sex, and yet to converse with the only part of it I despise. This stammer in my address, and this awkward prepossessing visage of mine, can never permit me to soar above the reach of a milliner's 'prentice, or one of the duchesses of Drury-lane. Pshaw! this fellow here to interrupt us.

Enter HARDCASTLE.

She Stoops to Conquer