Today's Stichomancy for Al Capone

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

"Phaedr." 255 D. Cf. Aristot. "Eth. N." ix. 1.

[10] Lit. "which of us but knows his soul is melting away with passion." Cf. Theocr. xiv. 26.

[11] Lit. "beautiful and gentle manhood."

[12] Lit. "how serious are his brows."

[13] The phrases somehow remind one of Sappho's famous ode:

{phainetai moi kenos isos theoisin emmen oner, ostis enantios toi izanei, kai plasion adu phoneusas upakouei kai gelosas imeroen}.

But there we must stop. Hermogenes is a sort of Sir Percivale,

The Symposium

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

Ladislaw had now accepted his bit of work, though it was not that indeterminate loftiest thing which he had once dreamed of as alone worthy of continuous effort. His nature warmed easily in the presence of subjects which were visibly mixed with life and action, and the easily stirred rebellion in him helped the glow of public spirit. In spite of Mr. Casaubon and the banishment from Lowick, he was rather happy; getting a great deal of fresh knowledge in a vivid way and for practical purposes, and making the "Pioneer" celebrated as far as Brassing (never mind the smallness of the area; the writing was not worse than much that reaches the four corners of the earth).

Mr. Brooke was occasionally irritating; but Will's impatience was

Middlemarch

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Koran:

calf; repent unto your Creator and kill each other; that will be better for you in your Creator's eyes; and He turned unto you, for He is the compassionate one easily turned.' And when ye said to Moses, 'O Moses! we will not believe in thee until we see God manifestly,' and the thunderbolt caught you while ye yet looked on. Then we raised you up after your death; perhaps ye may be grateful. And we overshadowed you with the cloud, and sent down the manna and the quails; 'Eat of the good things we have given you.' They not wrong us, but it was themselves they were wronging. And when we said, 'Enter this city and eat therefrom as plentifully as ye wish; and enter the gate worshipping and say 'hittatun. So will we pardon you your sins

The Koran

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 Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad:

towards us and yet seemed already within reach of the hand. I saw the vague figures of the watch grouped in the waist, gazing in awed silence.

"Are you going on, sir?" inquired an unsteady voice at my elbow.

I ignored it. I had to go on.

"Keep her full. Don't check her way. That won't do now," I said warningly.

"I can't see the sails very well," the helmsman answered me, in strange, quavering tones.

Was she close enough? Already she was, I won't say in the shadow of the land, but in the very blackness of it, already swallowed up as it were, gone too

The Secret Sharer