Today's Stichomancy for Chris Elliott

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from House of Mirth by Edith Wharton:

be able to manage it."

"Be able to manage it? That's not what I mean--it's no place for you!"

"It's what I mean; for I have been out of work for the last week."

"Out of work--out of work! What a way for you to talk! The idea of your having to work--it's preposterous." He brought out his sentences in short violent jerks, as though they were forced up from a deep inner crater of indignation. "It's a farce--a crazy farce," he repeated, his eyes fixed on the long vista of the room reflected in the blotched glass between the windows.

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Prince Otto by Robert Louis Stevenson:

is much younger than the Prince, a girl of two-and-twenty, sick with vanity, superficially clever, and fundamentally a fool. She has a red-brown rolling eye, too large for her face, and with sparks of both levity and ferocity; her forehead is high and narrow, her figure thin and a little stooping. Her manners, her conversation, which she interlards with French, her very tastes and ambitions, are alike assumed; and the assumption is ungracefully apparent: Hoyden playing Cleopatra. I should judge her to be incapable of truth. In private life a girl of this description embroils the peace of families, walks attended by a troop of scowling swains, and passes, once at least, through the divorce court; it is a common and, except

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

Psalms 119: 2 Happy are they that keep His testimonies, that seek Him with the whole heart.

Psalms 119: 3 Yea, they do no unrighteousness; they walk in His ways.

Psalms 119: 4 Thou hast ordained Thy precepts, that we should observe them diligently.

Psalms 119: 5 Oh that my ways were directed to observe Thy statutes!

Psalms 119: 6 Then should I not be ashamed, when I have regard unto all Thy commandments.

Psalms 119: 7 I will give thanks unto Thee with uprightness of heart, when I learn Thy righteous ordinances.

Psalms 119: 8 I will observe Thy statutes; O forsake me not utterly.

Psalms 119: 9 BETH. Wherewithal shall a young man keep his way pure? By taking heed thereto according to Thy word.

Psalms 119: 10 With my whole heart have I sought Thee; O let me not err from Thy commandments.

Psalms 119: 11 Thy word have I laid up in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee.

Psalms 119: 12 Blessed art Thou, O LORD; teach me Thy statutes.

The Tanach

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 Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde:

LORD WINDERMERE. I am not one of them.

LADY WINDERMERE. I am not sure of that!

LORD WINDERMERE. You are sure in your heart. But don't make chasm after chasm between us. God knows the last few minutes have thrust us wide enough apart. Sit down and write the card.

LADY WINDERMERE. Nothing in the whole world would induce me.

LORD WINDERMERE. [Crossing to bureau.] Then I will! [Rings electric bell, sits and writes card.]

LADY WINDERMERE. You are going to invite this woman? [Crossing to him.]

LORD WINDERMERE. Yes. [Pause. Enter PARKER.] Parker!