Today's Stichomancy for Bob Dylan
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Tour Through Eastern Counties of England by Daniel Defoe: this island to itself, is the chief reason of any decay of business
in this place; and I shall, in the course of these observations,
hint at it, where many good seaports and large towns, though
farther off than Ipswich, and as well fitted for commerce, are yet
swallowed up by the immense indraft of trade to the City of London;
and more decayed beyond all comparison than Ipswich is supposed to
be: as Southampton, Weymouth, Dartmouth, and several others which I
shall speak to in their order; and if it be otherwise at this time,
with some other towns, which are lately increased in trade and
navigation, wealth, and people, while their neighbours decay, it is
because they have some particular trade, or accident to trade,
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from First Inaugural Address by Abraham Lincoln: exact temper of doing this.
Is there such perfect identity of interests among the States
to compose a new Union, as to produce harmony only,
and prevent renewed secession?
Plainly, the central idea of secession is the essence of anarchy.
A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations,
and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular
opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people.
Whoever rejects it does, of necessity, fly to anarchy or to despotism.
Unanimity is impossible; the rule of a minority, as a permanent arrangement,
is wholly inadmissible; so that, rejecting the majority principle,
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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 An Inland Voyage by Robert Louis Stevenson: coloured bas-relief, it seems to have been founded, sometime other,
by the Virgin giving one rosary to Saint Dominic, and the Infant
Saviour giving another to Saint Catharine of Siena. Pope Gregory
is not so imposing, but he is nearer hand. I could not distinctly
make out whether the Association was entirely devotional, or had an
eye to good works; at least it is highly organised: the names of
fourteen matrons and misses were filled in for each week of the
month as associates, with one other, generally a married woman, at
the top for ZELATRICE: the leader of the band. Indulgences,
plenary and partial, follow on the performance of the duties of the
Association. 'The partial indulgences are attached to the
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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 Tales of the Klondyke by Jack London: felt nothing. And we fell often by the way, but we fell, always,
with our faces toward Salt Water.
"Our last grub went, and we had shared fair, Passuk and I, but she
fell more often, and at Caribou Crossing her strength left her.
And in the morning we lay beneath the one robe and did not take
the trail. It was in my mind to stay there and meet Death hand-
in-hand with Passuk; for I had grown old, and had learned the love
of woman. Also, it was eighty miles to Haines Mission, and the
great Chilcoot, far above the timber-line, reared his storm-swept
head between. But Passuk spoke to me, low, with my ear against
her lips that I might hear. And now, because she need not fear my
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