Today's Stichomancy for Ron Howard
The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from New Arabian Nights by Robert Louis Stevenson: the wrong person when he followed Mr. Vandeleur.
The porter, whom he consulted, could afford him little information;
but, such as it was, it had a mysterious and questionable sound.
The person next door was an English gentleman of extraordinary
wealth, and proportionately eccentric in his tastes and habits. He
possessed great collections, which he kept in the house beside him;
and it was to protect these that he had fitted the place with steel
shutters, elaborate fastenings, and CHEVAUX-DE-FRISE along the
garden wall. He lived much alone, in spite of some strange
visitors with whom, it seemed, he had business to transact; and
there was no one else in the house, except Mademoiselle and an old
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Perfect Wagnerite: A Commentary on the Niblung's Ring by George Bernard Shaw: The words mercy and kindness connote it less ambiguously than the
word love. But Wagner sought always for some point of contact
between his ideas and the physical senses, so that people might
not only think or imagine them in the eighteenth century fashion,
but see them on the stage, hear them from the orchestra, and feel
them through the infection of passionate emotion. Dr. Johnson
kicking the stone to confute Berkeley is not more bent on
common-sense concreteness than Wagner: on all occasions he
insists on the need for sensuous apprehension to give reality to
abstract comprehension, maintaining, in fact, that reality has no
other meaning. Now he could apply this process to poetic love
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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 Lady Susan by Jane Austen: circumstances you could not act otherwise. Our friendship cannot be
impaired by it, and in happier times, when your situation is as independent
as mine, it will unite us again in the same intimacy as ever. For this I
shall impatiently wait, and meanwhile can safely assure you that I never
was more at ease, or better satisfied with myself and everything about me
than at the present hour. Your husband I abhor, Reginald I despise, and I
am secure of never seeing either again. Have I not reason to rejoice?
Mainwaring is more devoted to me than ever; and were we at liberty, I doubt
if I could resist even matrimony offered by HIM. This event, if his wife
live with you, it may be in your power to hasten. The violence of her
feelings, which must wear her out, may be easily kept in irritation. I rely
 Lady Susan |
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 Lady Susan by Jane Austen: Mainwaring tremble for the consequence. Frederica shall be Sir James's wife
before she quits my house, and she may whimper, and the Vernons may storm,
I regard them not. I am tired of submitting my will to the caprices of
others; of resigning my own judgment in deference to those to whom I owe no
duty, and for whom I feel no respect. I have given up too much, have been
too easily worked on, but Frederica shall now feel the difference. Adieu,
dearest of friends ; may the next gouty attack be more favourable! and may
you always regard me as unalterably yours,
S. VERNON
XL
LADY DE COURCY TO MRS. VERNON
 Lady Susan |
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