Today's Stichomancy for Tom Hanks

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy:

first. As soon as she saw him she uttered a little cry, almost of terror.

"How can you frighten me so?" she exclaimed, with a flushed face. "It is past ten o'clock, and you have no right to surprise me here at such a time."

"I don't know that I've not the right. At any rate I have the excuse. Is it so necessary that I should stop to think of manners and customs?"

"It is too late for propriety, and might injure me."

"I called an hour ago, and you would not see me, and I thought you were in when I called now. It is you, Lucetta,

The Mayor of Casterbridge

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

2_Chronicles 18: 34 And the battle increased that day; howbeit the king of Israel stayed himself up in his chariot against the Arameans until the even; and about the time of the going down of the sun he died.

2_Chronicles 19: 1 And Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem.

2_Chronicles 19: 2 And Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat: 'Shouldest thou help the wicked, and love them that hate the LORD? for this thing wrath is upon thee from before the LORD.

2_Chronicles 19: 3 Nevertheless there are good things found in thee, in that thou hast put away the Asheroth out of the land, and hast set thy heart to seek God.'

2_Chronicles 19: 4 And Jehoshaphat dwelt at Jerusalem; and he went out again among the people from Beer-sheba to the hill-country of Ephraim, and brought them back unto the LORD, the God of their fathers.

2_Chronicles 19: 5 And he set judges in the land throughout all the fortified cities of Judah, city by city,

2_Chronicles 19: 6 and said to the judges: 'Consider what ye do; for ye judge not for man, but for the LORD; and He is with you in giving judgment.

2_Chronicles 19: 7 Now therefore let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take heed and do it; for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes.'

The Tanach

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from My Bondage and My Freedom by Frederick Douglass:

were Henry Harris, John Harris, Handy Caldwell, and Sandy Jenkins.[6]

Henry and John were brothers, and belonged to Mr. Freeland. They were both remarkably bright and intelligent, though neither of them could read. Now for mischief! I had not been long at Freeland's before I was up to my old tricks. I early began to address my companions on the subject of education, and the advantages of intelligence over ignorance, and, as far as I dared, I tried to show the agency of ignorance in keeping men in slavery. Webster's spelling book and the _Columbian Orator_ were looked into again. As summer came on, and the long Sabbath days

My Bondage and My Freedom

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 Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau by Honore de Balzac:

of Mademoiselle Cesarine."

At these words tears came into the eyes of all present except Cesar; he rose, took Anselme by the hand and said, in a hollow voice, "My son, you shall never marry the daughter of a bankrupt."

Anselme looked fixedly at Birotteau and said: "Monsieur, will you pledge yourself, here, in presence of your whole family, to consent to our marriage, if mademoiselle will accept me as her husband, on the day when you have retrieved your failure?"

There was an instant's silence, during which all present were affected by the emotions painted on the worn face of the poor man.

"Yes," he said, at last.

Rise and Fall of Cesar Birotteau