Today's Stichomancy for Galileo Galilei
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Letters of Robert Louis Stevenson by Robert Louis Stevenson: that it begins in the ADMIRAL BENBOW public-house on Devon coast,
that it's all about a map, and a treasure, and a mutiny, and a
derelict ship, and a current, and a fine old Squire Trelawney (the
real Tre, purged of literature and sin, to suit the infant mind),
and a doctor, and another doctor, and a sea-cook with one leg, and
a sea-song with the chorus 'Yo-ho-ho-and a bottle of rum' (at the
third Ho you heave at the capstan bars), which is a real
buccaneer's song, only known to the crew of the late Captain Flint
(died of rum at Key West, much regretted, friends will please
accept this intimation); and lastly, would you be surprised to
hear, in this connection, the name of ROUTLEDGE? That's the kind
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Large Catechism by Dr. Martin Luther: the best of our ability, and, on the other hand, prevent whatever may
be discreditable to him. And it is especially an excellent and noble
virtue for one always to explain advantageously and put the best
construction upon all he may hear of his neighbor (if it be not
notoriously evil), or at any rate to condone it over and against the
poisonous tongues that are busy wherever they can pry out and discover
something to blame in a neighbor, and that explain and pervert it in
the worst way; as is done now especially with the precious Word of God
and its preachers.
There are comprehended therefore in this commandment quite a multitude
of good works which please God most highly, and bring abundant good and
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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 Egmont by Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: different sort of fellow as a schoolboy! --Then, when an exercise in
oratory was given; "Brutus' Speech for Liberty," for instance, Fritz was
ever the first, and the rector would say: "If it were only spoken more
deliberately, the words not all huddled together."--Then my blood boiled,
and longed for action.--Now I drag along, bound by the eyes of a maiden.
I cannot leave her! yet she, alas, cannot love me!--ah--no---she--she
cannot have entirely rejected me--not entirely--yet half love is no love!--I
will endure it no longer!--Can it be true what a friend lately whispered in
my ear, that she secretly admits a man into the house by night, when she
always sends me away modestly before evening? No, it cannot be true! It
is a lie! A base, slanderous lie! Clara is as innocent as I am wretched.--She
Egmont |
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 Euthyphro by Plato: which I have already given to others:--of the principle, I mean, that the
impious, whoever he may be, ought not to go unpunished. For do not men
regard Zeus as the best and most righteous of the gods?--and yet they admit
that he bound his father (Cronos) because he wickedly devoured his sons,
and that he too had punished his own father (Uranus) for a similar reason,
in a nameless manner. And yet when I proceed against my father, they are
angry with me. So inconsistent are they in their way of talking when the
gods are concerned, and when I am concerned.
SOCRATES: May not this be the reason, Euthyphro, why I am charged with
impiety--that I cannot away with these stories about the gods? and
therefore I suppose that people think me wrong. But, as you who are
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