Today's Stichomancy for Ice Cube
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Another Study of Woman by Honore de Balzac: might make them seem praise frankly addressed to Camille Maupin. "This
epigram is not mine, but Napoleon's," he added.
"You need not owe Napoleon any grudge on that score," said Canalis,
with an emphatic tone and gesture. "It was one of his weaknesses to be
jealous of literary genius--for he had his mean points. Who will ever
explain, depict, or understand Napoleon? A man represented with his
arms folded, and who did everything, who was the greatest force ever
known, the most concentrated, the most mordant, the most acid of all
forces; a singular genius who carried armed civilization in every
direction without fixing it anywhere; a man who could do everything
because he willed everything; a prodigious phenomenon of will,
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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 Witch, et. al by Anton Chekhov: every syllable.
"With their bells. And when the end of the world comes the good
will go to Paradise, but the angry will burn in fire eternal and
unquenchable, dearie. To my mother as well as to Marya God will
say: 'You never offended anyone, and for that go to the right to
Paradise'; but to Kiryak and Granny He will say: 'You go to the
left into the fire.' And anyone who has eaten meat in Lent will
go into the fire, too."
She looked upwards at the sky, opening wide her eyes, and said:
"Look at the sky without winking, you will see angels."
Motka began looking at the sky, too, and a minute passed in
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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 Proposed Roads To Freedom by Bertrand Russell: within a country or in its external relations, can only
be prevented, if we have not been mistaken, by an
authority able to declare all use of force except by
itself illegal, and strong enough to be obviously
capable of making all other use of force futile, except
when it could secure the support of public opinion as
a defense of freedom or a resistance to injustice.
Such an authority exists within a country: it is the
State. But in international affairs it remains to be
created. The difficulties are stupendous, but they must
be overcome if the world is to be saved from periodical
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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 The Complete Angler by Izaak Walton: or gentles; in April, with worms or cadis; in the very hot months, with
little white snails; or with flies under water, for he seldom takes them at
the top, though the Dace will. In many of the hot months, Roaches may
also be caught thus: take a May-fly, or ant-fly, sink him with a little
lead to the bottom, near to the piles or posts of a bridge, or near to any
posts of a weir, I mean any deep place where Roaches lie quietly, and
then pull your fly up very leisurely, and usually a Roach will follow
your bait up to the very top of the water, and gaze on it there, and run at
it, and take it, lest the fly should fly away from him.
I have seen this done at Windsor and Henley Bridge, and great store of
Roach taken; and sometimes, a Dace or Chub. And in August you may
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