Today's Stichomancy for Pierce Brosnan
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Book of Remarkable Criminals by H. B. Irving: trained to better things, but the one idle, greedy and vicious,
the other cynical, indifferent, inclined at best to a lazy
sentimentalism. Barre is a needy stockbroker at the end of
his tether, desperate to find an expedient for raising the wind,
Lebiez a medical student who writes morbid verses to a skull and
lectures on Darwinism. To Barre belongs the original
suggestion to murder an old woman who sells milk and is reputed
to have savings. But his friend and former schoolfellow, Lebiez,
accepts the suggestion placidly, and reconciles himself to the
murder of an unnecessary old woman by the same argument as that
used by Raskolnikoff in "Crime and Punishment" to justify the
 A Book of Remarkable Criminals |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Pierre Grassou by Honore de Balzac: Forced to make the selection for itself, which in former days the
examining jury made for it, the attention of the public is soon
wearied and the exhibition closes. Before the year 1817 the pictures
admitted never went beyond the first two columns of the long gallery
of the old masters; but in that year, to the great astonishment of the
public, they filled the whole space. Historical, high-art, genre
paintings, easel pictures, landscapes, flowers, animals, and water-
colors,--these eight specialties could surely not offer more than
twenty pictures in one year worthy of the eyes of the public, which,
indeed, cannot give its attention to a greater number of such works.
The more the number of artists increases, the more careful and
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| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis: principle. We like you, and we want to help you so you can get married, but
we can't be unfair to the others on the staff. If we start giving you bonuses,
don't you see we're going to hurt the feeling and be unjust to Penniman and
Laylock? Right's right, and discrimination is unfair, and there ain't going
to be any of it in this office! Don't get the idea, Stan, that because during
the war salesmen were hard to hire, now, when there's a lot of men out of
work, there aren't a slew of bright young fellows that would be glad to step
in and enjoy your opportunities, and not act as if Thompson and I were his
enemies and not do any work except for bonuses. How about it, heh? How about
it?"
"Oh--well--gee--of course--" sighed Graff, as he went out, crabwise.
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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 Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey: Bess, however, never rested for long. Soon she was exploring, and
Venters followed; she dragged forth from corners and shelves a
multitude of crudely fashioned and painted pieces of pottery, and
he carried them. They peeped down into the dark holes of the
kivas, and Bess gleefully dropped a stone and waited for the
long-coming hollow sound to rise. They peeped into the little
globular houses, like mud-wasp nests, and wondered if these had
been store-places for grain, or baby cribs, or what; and they
crawled into the larger houses and laughed when they bumped their
heads on the low roofs, and they dug in the dust of the floors.
And they brought from dust and darkness armloads of treasure
 Riders of the Purple Sage |
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