Today's Stichomancy for Sarah Michelle Gellar
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Apology by Xenophon: reproach, what prospect have I of any further joy in living? It may
be, you know," he added, "that God out of his great kindness is
intervening in my behalf[14] to suffer me to close my life in the
ripeness of age, and by the gentlest of deaths. For if at this time
sentence of death be passed upon me, it is plain I shall be allowed to
meet an end which, in the opinion of those who have studied the
matter, is not only the easiest in itself, but one which will cause
the least trouble to one's friends,[15] while engendering the deepest
longing for the departed. For of necessity he will only be thought of
with regret and longing who leaves nothing behind unseemly or
discomfortable to haunt the imagination of those beside him, but,
The Apology |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Essays of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: tree; and yet farther, across a strait of glaring sunshine, you see
another painter, encamped in the shadow of another tree, and up to
his waist in the fern. You cannot watch your own effigy growing out
of the white trunk, and the trunk beginning to stand forth from the
rest of the wood, and the whole picture getting dappled over with the
flecks of sun that slip through the leaves overhead, and, as a wind
goes by and sets the trees a-talking, flicker hither and thither like
butterflies of light. But you know it is going forward; and, out of
emulation with the painter, get ready your own palette, and lay out
the colour for a woodland scene in words.
Your tree stands in a hollow paved with fern and heather, set in a
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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 Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift: traveller;" whereof these gave notice to a custom-house officer,
by whom I was examined very strictly upon my landing. This
officer spoke to me in the language of Balnibarbi, which, by the
force of much commerce, is generally understood in that town,
especially by seamen and those employed in the customs. I gave
him a short account of some particulars, and made my story as
plausible and consistent as I could; but I thought it necessary
to disguise my country, and call myself a Hollander; because my
intentions were for Japan, and I knew the Dutch were the only
Europeans permitted to enter into that kingdom. I therefore told
the officer, "that having been shipwrecked on the coast of
Gulliver's Travels |
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 Catherine de Medici by Honore de Balzac: "A painted trap catches no game," says the poet, after telling Diane
that she painted her face and bought her teeth and hair. "You may buy
all that superficially makes a woman, but you can't buy that your
lover wants; for he wants life, and you are dead."
This collection, printed by Simon de Colines, is dedicated to a
bishop!--to Francois Bohier, the brother of the man who, to save his
credit at court and redeem his offence, offered to Diane, on the
accession of Henri II., the chateau de Chenonceaux, built by his
father, Thomas Bohier, a councillor of state under four kings: Louis
XI., Charles VIII., Louis XII., and Francois I. What were the
pamphlets published against Madame de Pompadour and against Marie-
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