Today's Stichomancy for Jessica Simpson
The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Lady Baltimore by Owen Wister: weaker into the flood and thus floats safe. Why, the old apple of wisdom,
which Adam and Eve swallowed and thus lost their innocence, was a gentle
nursery drug compared with the new apple of competition, which, as soon
as chewed, instantly transforms the heart into a second brain. But why
worry, when nothing is final? Haven't you and I, for instance, lamented
the present rottenness of smart society? Why, when kings by the name of
George sat on the throne of England, society was just as drunken, just as
dissolute! Then a decent queen came, and society behaved itself; and now,
here we come round again to the Georges, only with the name changed!
There's nothing final. So, when things are as you don't like them,
remember that and bear them; and when they're as you do like them,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Songs of Travel by Robert Louis Stevenson: Honolulu, Feb. 3, 1889.
XXX - TO PRINCESS KAIULANI
[Written in April to Kaiulani in the April of her age; and at
Waikiki, within easy walk of Kaiulani's banyan! When she comes to my
land and her father's, and the rain beats upon the window (as I fear
it will), let her look at this page; it will be like a weed gathered
and pressed at home; and she will remember her own islands, and the
shadow of the mighty tree; and she will hear the peacocks screaming
in the dusk and the wind blowing in the palms; and she will think of
her father sitting there alone. - R. L. S.]
FORTH from her land to mine she goes,
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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 The Human Drift by Jack London: though invisible, in some way a dim, suffused radiance came from
it. I paced back and forth across the deck amidships. My mind
was filled with the event of the day and with the horrible tales
my shipmates had told, and yet I dare to say, here and now, that I
was not afraid. I was a healthy animal, and furthermore,
intellectually, I agreed with Swinburne that dead men rise up
never. The Bricklayer was dead, and that was the end of it. He
would rise up never--at least, never on the deck of the Sophie
Sutherland. Even then he was in the ocean depths miles to
windward of our leeward drift, and the likelihood was that he was
already portioned out in the maws of many sharks. Still, my mind
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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 The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde: have no flowers left for the market and he was very anxious to get
his silver buttons back.
"'Well, really,' answered the Miller, 'as I have given you my
wheelbarrow, I don't think that it is much to ask you for a few
flowers. I may be wrong, but I should have thought that
friendship, true friendship, was quite free from selfishness of any
kind.'
"'My dear friend, my best friend,' cried little Hans, 'you are
welcome to all the flowers in my garden. I would much sooner have
your good opinion than my silver buttons, any day'; and he ran and
plucked all his pretty primroses, and filled the Miller's basket.
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