Today's Stichomancy for Moby
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: place, what above all is here worthy of observation, is the generation of
the animal spirits, which are like a very subtle wind, or rather a very
pure and vivid flame which, continually ascending in great abundance from
the heart to the brain, thence penetrates through the nerves into the
muscles, and gives motion to all the members; so that to account for other
parts of the blood which, as most agitated and penetrating, are the
fittest to compose these spirits, proceeding towards the brain, it is not
necessary to suppose any other cause, than simply, that the arteries which
carry them thither proceed from the heart in the most direct lines, and
that, according to the rules of mechanics which are the same with those of
nature, when many objects tend at once to the same point where there is
Reason Discourse |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from In the South Seas by Robert Louis Stevenson: about saluting the quarter-deck of a man-of-war. In his gratitude
for this hint he became fulsome. 'Schooner cap'n no tell me,' he
cried; 'I think no tavvy! You tavvy too much; tavvy 'teama', tavvy
man-a-wa'. I think you tavvy everything.' Yet he gravelled me
often enough with his perpetual questions; and the false Mr. Barlow
stood frequently exposed before the royal Sandford. I remember
once in particular. We were showing the magic-lantern; a slide of
Windsor Castle was put in, and I told him there was the 'outch' of
Victoreea. 'How many pathom he high?' he asked, and I was dumb
before him. It was the builder, the indefatigable architect of
palaces, that spoke; collector though he was, he did not collect
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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 Lady Susan by Jane Austen: take my advice, and resolve to marry De Courcy, it will be indispensably
necessary to you to get Mainwaring out of the way; and you only can have
influence enough to send him back to his wife. I have still another motive
for your coming: Mr. Johnson leaves London next Tuesday; he is going for
his health to Bath, where, if the waters are favourable to his constitution
and my wishes, he will be laid up with the gout many weeks. During his
absence we shall be able to chuse our own society, and to have true
enjoyment. I would ask you to Edward Street, but that once he forced from
me a kind of promise never to invite you to my house; nothing but my being
in the utmost distress for money should have extorted it from me. I can get
you, however, a nice drawing-room apartment in Upper Seymour Street, and we
Lady Susan |
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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard: One night we camped in a rest house, of which there were many built
along the roads for the use of travellers, that was placed almost
on the top of the sierra or mountain range which surrounds the
valley of Tenoctitlan. Next morning we took the road again before
dawn, for the cold was so sharp at this great height that we, who
had travelled from the hot land, could sleep very little, and also
Guatemoc desired if it were possible to reach the city that night.
When we had gone a few hundred paces the path came to the crest of
the mountain range, and I halted suddenly in wonder and admiration.
Below me lay a vast bowl of land and water, of which, however, I
could see nothing, for the shadows of the night still filled it.
Montezuma's Daughter |
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