Today's Stichomancy for Ambrose Bierce

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Awakening & Selected Short Stories by Kate Chopin:

"Something new, Edna?" exclaimed Miss Mayblunt, with lorgnette directed toward a magnificent cluster of diamonds that sparkled, that almost sputtered, in Edna's hair, just over the center of her forehead.

"Quite new; `brand' new, in fact; a present from my husband. It arrived this morning from New York. I may as well admit that this is my birthday, and that I am twenty-nine. In good time I expect you to drink my health. Meanwhile, I shall ask you to begin with this cocktail, composed--would you say `composed?'" with an appeal to Miss Mayblunt--"composed by my father in honor of Sister Janet's wedding."

Awakening & Selected Short Stories

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

present. Regrets and memories had no place in their new world. It was Hope, Hope, Hope, that sang to them and called to them and smote into life the new keen blood of them. Then suddenly came the miracle, like the flashing out of a new star, whose radiance they felt but could not see, like a burst of music whose harmony they felt but could not hear. And as they stood there alone in all that simple glory of sky and earth and sea, they knew all in an instant that THEY WERE FOR EACH OTHER, forever and forever, for better or for worse, till death should them part. Into their romance, into their world of little things,

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

differences of rival factions within those states themselves, wherever existing.

[9] Lit. "her hegemony for the city," B.C. 476.

[10] "And first of all."

[11] See Thuc. i. 96.

[12] B.C. 378. Second confederacy of Delos. See Grote, "H. G." x. 152.

[13] B.C. 375. Cf. "Hell." V. iv. 62; Grote, "H. G." x. 139; Isocr. "Or." xiv. 20; Diod. Sic. xv. 29.

[14] B.C. 369 (al. B.C. 368). Cf. "Hell." VII. i. 14.

[15] See "Hell."VII. v. 27.

Make it but evident that we are minded to preserve the

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 Last War: A World Set Free by H. G. Wells:

'So firstly I shall probably die, and if I do not, then perhaps I shall be a useless invalid?'

'I think if you live, you may be able to go on--as you do now.'

'Well, then, I suppose I must take the risk of it. Yet couldn't you, Fowler, couldn't you drug me and patch me instead of all this--vivisection? A few days of drugged and active life--and then the end?'

Fowler thought. 'We are not sure enough yet to do things like that,' he said.

'But a day is coming when you will be certain.'

Fowler nodded.

The Last War: A World Set Free