Today's Stichomancy for Michelangelo

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

comes."

"You may not have intended--but you have taught me to think for myself. And I have seen others besides M. de Rezanov--the flower of Cali- fornia and more than one fine gentleman from Mexico. I will have none of them. I will marry the man of my choice or no one. It may be that I know naught of love. If you wish, you may think that my choice of a husband is determined by ambi- tion, that I am dazzled with the thought of court life in St. Petersburg, of being the consort of a

Rezanov

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

keep up but without hurrying, or out of zeal they will overshoot the line. As soon as they are once more in close neighbourhood of the hare, and once again have given their master clear indications of the fact, then let him give what heed he can, she does not move off farther in sheer terror of the hounds.

[33] {prosstosi}, al. "whenever they check."

[34] Al. (1) "take a stake or one of the poles as a sign-post," (2) "draw a line on the ground."

[35] {suneirein}. Zeune cf. "Cyrop." VII. v. 6, "draw the dogs along by the nets." Blane.

[36] "As the scent grows warmer," the translator in "Macmillan's Mag."

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Redheaded Outfield by Zane Grey:

the pennant,

THE RUBE'S HONEYMOON

``He's got a new manager. Watch him pitch now!'' That was what Nan Brown said to me about Rube Hurtle, my great pitcher, and I took it as her way of announcing her engagement.

My baseball career held some proud moments, but this one, wherein I realized the success of my matchmaking plans, was certainly the proudest one. So, entirely outside of the honest pleasure I got out of the Rube's happiness, there was

The Redheaded Outfield

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 Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson:

to this neglect of the original beat there is a limit.

'Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts,' (3)

is, with all its eccentricities, a good heroic line; for though it scarcely can be said to indicate the beat of the iamb, it certainly suggests no other measure to the ear. But begin

'Mother Athens, eye of Greece,'

or merely 'Mother Athens,' and the game is up, for the trochaic beat has been suggested. The eccentric scansion of the groups is an adornment; but as soon as the original beat has been forgotten, they cease implicitly to be eccentric.