Today's Stichomancy for Abraham Lincoln

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Mayflower Compact:

computers we used then didn't have lower case at all.

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These original Project Gutenberg Etexts will be compiled into a file containing them all, in order to improve the content ratios of Etext to header material.

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The Mayflower Compact

November 11, 1620 [This was November 21, old style calendar]

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

SALOME. Mais parle encore. Parle encore, Iokanaan, et dis-moi ce qu'il faut que je fasse.

IOKANAAN. Ne m'approchez pas, fille de Sodome, mais couvrez votre visage avec un voile, et mettez des cendres sur votre tete, et allez dans le desert chercher le fils de l'Homme.

SALOME. Qui est-ce, le fils de l'Homme? Est-il aussi beau que toi, Iokanaan?

IOKANAAN. Arriere! Arriere! J'entends dans le palais le battement des ailes de l'ange de la mort.

LE JEUNE SYRIEN. Princesse, je vous supplie de rentrer!

IOKANAAN. Ange du Seigneur Dieu, que fais-tu ici avec ton glaive?

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Love and Friendship by Jane Austen:

of your affection as I flatter myself was conveyed in the proposal you made me of our Corresponding; I assure you that it will be a great releif to me to write to you and as long as my Health and Spirits will allow me, you will find me a very constant correspondent; I will not say an entertaining one, for you know my situation suffciently not to be ignorant that in me Mirth would be improper and I know my own Heart too well not to be sensible that it would be unnatural. You must not expect news for we see no one with whom we are in the least acquainted, or in whose proceedings we have any Interest. You must not expect scandal for by the same rule we are equally debarred either from

Love and Friendship

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 Dracula by Bram Stoker:

Why, these flowers are only common garlic."

To my surprise, Van Helsing rose up and said with all his sternness, his iron jaw set and his bushy eyebrows meeting,

"No trifling with me! I never jest! There is grim purpose in what I do, and I warn you that you do not thwart me. Take care, for the sake of others if not for your own." Then seeing poor Lucy scared, as she might well be, he went on more gently, "Oh, little miss, my dear, do not fear me. I only do for your good, but there is much virtue to you in those so common flowers. See, I place them myself in your room. I make myself the wreath that you are to wear. But hush!

Dracula