Today's Stichomancy for Dr. Phil

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

when needs must be. And indeed, as for my sword--(put on, I pray you)--it is a poor Provant rapier, and I warrant you he has a special Toledo. He has a serving-man, too, and I think it is the drunken ruffian Lambourne! upon the horse on which men say--(I pray you heartily to put on)--he did the great robbery of the west country grazier. It is not that I fear either Varney or Lambourne in a good cause--(your palfrey will go yet faster if you urge him)--but yet--(nay, I pray you let him not break off into a gallop, lest they should see we fear them, and give chase --keep him only at the full trot)--but yet, though I fear them not, I would we were well rid of them, and that rather by policy

Kenilworth

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Democracy In America, Volume 1 by Alexis de Toqueville:

in Europe. They undertook (what had never before been attempted) to make shift without a number of things which had always been held to be indispensable in warfare; they required novel exertions on the part of their troops which no civilized nations had ever thought of; they achieved great actions in an incredibly short space of time; and they risked human life without hesitation to obtain the object in view. The French had less money and fewer men than their enemies; their resources were infinitely inferior; nevertheless they were constantly victorious, until their adversaries chose to imitate their example.

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte:

soliloquy:

'I should like to be riding Minny down there! I should like to be climbing up there! Oh! I'm tired - I'm STALLED, Hareton!' And she leant her pretty head back against the sill, with half a yawn and half a sigh, and lapsed into an aspect of abstracted sadness: neither caring nor knowing whether we remarked her.

'Mrs. Heathcliff,' I said, after sitting some time mute, 'you are not aware that I am an acquaintance of yours? so intimate that I think it strange you won't come and speak to me. My housekeeper never wearies of talking about and praising you; and she'll be greatly disappointed if I return with no news of or from you,

Wuthering Heights

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 Polity of Athenians and Lacedaemonians by Xenophon:

stinted for viands, nor yet extravagantly furnished.

[3] See Plut. "Lycurg." 12 (Clough, i. 97).

[4] {paraloga}, i.e. unexpected dishes, technically named {epaikla} (hors d'oeuvres), as we learn from Athenaeus, iv. 140, 141.

So also in the matter of drink. Whilst putting a stop to all unnecessary potations, detrimental alike to a firm brain and a steady gait,[5] he left them free to quench thirst when nature dictated[6]; a method which would at once add to the pleasure whilst it diminished the danger of drinking. And indeed one may fairly ask how, on such a system of common meals, it would be possible for any one to ruin either himself or his family either through gluttony or wine-bibbing.