Today's Stichomancy for Rebecca Gayheart
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact: of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof do enact,
constitute, and frame, such just and equall Laws, Ordinances,
Acts, Constitutions, and Offices, from time to time,
as shall be thought most meete and convenient for the
Generall Good of the Colonie; unto which we promise
all due Submission and Obedience.
In Witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names
at Cape Cod the eleventh of November, in the Raigne of our
Sovereigne Lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland,
the eighteenth, and of Scotland, the fiftie-fourth,
Anno. Domini, 1620.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy: way -- you are rather an injury to our race than other-
wise.
"How -- indeed?" she said, opening her eyes.
"O, it is true enough. I may as well be hung for
a sheep as a lamb (an old country saying, not of much
account, but it will do for a rough soldier), and so I
will speak my mind, regardless of your pleasure, and
without hoping or intending to get your pardon. Why,
Miss Everdene, it is in this manner that your good
looks may do more. harm than good in the world."
The sergeant looked down the mead in critical abstrac-
 Far From the Madding Crowd |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: a very different type of the workman-innkeeper from the bawling
disputatious fellow at Origny. He also loved Paris, where he had
worked as a decorative painter in his youth. There were such
opportunities for self-instruction there, he said. And if any one
has read Zola's description of the workman's marriage-party
visiting the Louvre, they would do well to have heard Bazin by way
of antidote. He had delighted in the museums in his youth. 'One
sees there little miracles of work,' he said; 'that is what makes a
good workman; it kindles a spark.' We asked him how he managed in
La Fere. 'I am married,' he said, 'and I have my pretty children.
But frankly, it is no life at all. From morning to night I pledge
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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 A Legend of Montrose by Walter Scott: land, and, with the assistance of Clanranald's people, having
taken and fortified the Castle of Mingarry, in spite of Argyle's
attempts to intercept them, were in full march to this place of
rendezvous. It only remained," he said, "that the noble Chiefs
assembled, laying aside every lesser consideration, should unite,
heart and hand, in the common cause; send the fiery cross through
their clans, in order to collect their utmost force, and form
their junction with such celerity as to leave the enemy no time,
either for preparation, or recovery from the panic which would
spread at the first sound of their pibroch. He himself," he
said, "though neither among the richest nor the most powerful of
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