Today's Stichomancy for Benjamin Franklin

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Coxon Fund by Henry James:

again--the usual eminences were visible. I wondered whether he had lost his humour, or only, dreadful thought, had never had any--not even when I had fancied him most Aristophanesque. What was the need of appealing to laughter, however, I could enviously enquire, where you might appeal so confidently to measurement? Mr. Saltram's queer figure, his thick nose and hanging lip, were fresh to me: in the light of my old friend's fine cold symmetry they presented mere success in amusing as the refuge of conscious ugliness. Already, at hungry twenty-six, Gravener looked as blank and parliamentary as if he were fifty and popular. In my scrap of a residence--he had a worldling's eye for its futile conveniences,

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Redheaded Outfield by Zane Grey:

Dundon on an easy fly.

``Fellers, git in the game now,'' ordered Daddy, as his players eagerly trotted in. ``Say things to that Muckle Harris! We'll walk through this game like sand through a sieve.''

Bob Irvin ran to the plate waving his bat at Harris.

``Put one over, you freckleface! I 've been dyin' fer this chanst. You're on Madden's Hill now.''

Muckle evidently was not the kind of pitcher to stand coolly under such bantering. Obviously he

The Redheaded Outfield

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Mansion by Henry van Dyke:

public gifts--"the Weightman Charities," one very complaisant editor called them, as if they deserved classification as a distinct species. He turned he papers over listlessly. There was a description and

a picture of the "Weightman Wing of the Hospital for Cripples," of which he was president; and an article on the new professor in

the "Weightman Chair of Political Jurisprudence" in Jackson University, of which he was a trustee; and an illustrated account of the opening of

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 Wheels of Chance by H. G. Wells:

said slowly, at last.

He thought the time had come for an emotional attack. "Jessie," he said, with a sudden change of voice, "I know all this is mean, isvillanous. But do you think that I have done all this scheming, all this subterfuge, for any other object--"

She did not seem to listen to his words. "I shall ride home," she said abruptly.

"To her?"

She winced.

"Just think," said he, "what she could say to you after this."

"Anyhow, I shall leave you now."