Today's Stichomancy for Ricky Martin
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Ann Veronica by H. G. Wells: each encounter. Every now and then her general presence became
radiantly dazzling in his eyes; she would appear in the street
coming toward him, a surprise, so fine and smiling and welcoming
was she, so expanded and illuminated and living, in contrast with
his mere expectation. Or he would find something--a wave in her
hair, a little line in the contour of her brow or neck, that made
an exquisite discovery.
He was beginning to think about her inordinately. He would sit in
his inner office and compose conversations with her, penetrating,
illuminating, and nearly conclusive--conversations that never
proved to be of the slightest use at all with her when he met her
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: within itself all the perfections of which I could form any idea; that is
to say, in a single word, which was God. And to this I added that, since I
knew some perfections which I did not possess, I was not the only being in
existence (I will here, with your permission, freely use the terms of the
schools); but, on the contrary, that there was of necessity some other
more perfect Being upon whom I was dependent, and from whom I had received
all that I possessed; for if I had existed alone, and independently of
every other being, so as to have had from myself all the perfection,
however little, which I actually possessed, I should have been able, for
the same reason, to have had from myself the whole remainder of
perfection, of the want of which I was conscious, and thus could of myself
 Reason Discourse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from A Straight Deal by Owen Wister: before, because he intended that we should pay his war bills. Let him
once get by England, and his sword would cut through our fat, defenseless
carcass like a knife through cheese.
A voice arrested my reverie, a voice close by in the crowd. It said,
"Well, I like the French. But I'll not cry much if England gets hers.
What's England done in this war, anyway?"
"Her fleet's keeping the Kaiser out of your front yard, for one thing,"
retorted another voice.
With assurance slightly wobbling and a touch of the nasal whine, the
first speaker protested, "Well, look what George III done to us. Bad as
any Kaiser."
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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 Symposium by Plato: I was astonished at her words, and said: 'Is this really true, O thou wise
Diotima?' And she answered with all the authority of an accomplished
sophist: 'Of that, Socrates, you may be assured;--think only of the
ambition of men, and you will wonder at the senselessness of their ways,
unless you consider how they are stirred by the love of an immortality of
fame. They are ready to run all risks greater far than they would have run
for their children, and to spend money and undergo any sort of toil, and
even to die, for the sake of leaving behind them a name which shall be
eternal. Do you imagine that Alcestis would have died to save Admetus, or
Achilles to avenge Patroclus, or your own Codrus in order to preserve the
kingdom for his sons, if they had not imagined that the memory of their
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