Today's Stichomancy for Steven Spielberg

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Shadow Line by Joseph Conrad:

quiet eyes, a well-bred face, the disciplined in- dependence of his manner made up an attractive personality. When, in addition, Mr. Burns told me that he was the best seaman in the ship, I ex- pressed my surprise that in his earliest prime and of such appearance he should sign on as cook on board a ship.

"It's his heart," Mr. Burns had said. "There's something wrong with it. He mustn't exert him- self too much or he may drop dead suddenly."

And he was the only one the climate had not

The Shadow Line

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

those who misbelieve, for them is a drink of boiling water, and grievous woe, for that they did misbelieve.

He it is who made the sun for a brightness, and the moon for a light, and decreed for it mansions, that ye may know the number of the years and the reckoning.- God only created that in truth. He details the signs unto a people who do know.

Verily, in the alternation of night and day, and in what God has created of the heavens and the earth, are signs unto a people who do fear.

Verily, those who hope not for our meeting, and are content with the life of this world, and are comforted thereby, and those who are

The Koran

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn:

been warmly recommended to Feliu by Captain Harris. For some years he had been troubled by a disease of the heart.

Certainly the old invalid could not have found a more suitable place so far as rest and quiet were concerned. The season had early given such little promise that several men of the Point betook themselves elsewhere; and the aged visitor had two or three vacant cabins from among which to select a dwelling-place. He chose to occupy the most remote of all, which Carmen furnished for him with a cool moss bed and some necessary furniture,--including a big wooden rocking-chair. It seemed to him very comfortable thus. He took his meals with the family,

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 Wrecker by Stevenson & Osbourne:

the making of me. I hope you've had luck yourself."

"My word, no!" replied the little man. "I just sit here and read the _Dead Bird_. It's the depression in tryde, you see. There's no positions goin' that a man like me would care to look at." And he showed Norris his certificates and written characters, one from a grocer in Wooloomooloo, one from an ironmonger, and a third from a billiard saloon. "Yes," he said, "I tried bein' a billiard marker. It's no account; these lyte hours are no use for a man's health. I won't be no man's slyve," he added firmly.

On the principle that he who is too proud to be a slave is usually not too modest to become a pensioner, Carthew gave