Today's Stichomancy for Oscar Wilde

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Misalliance by George Bernard Shaw:

and Lord Summerhays]_ I must say that you have behaved like a perfect gentleman, Mr. Percival.

PERCIVAL. _[first bowing to Hypatia, and then turning with cold contempt to Gunner, who is standing helpless]_ We need not trouble you any further. _[Gunner turns vaguely towards the pavilion]._

JOHNNY _[with less refined offensiveness, pointing to the pavilion]_ Thats your way. The gardener will shew you the shortest way into the road. Go the shortest way.

GUNNER. _[oppressed and disconcerted, hardly knows how to get out of the room]_ Yes, sir. I-- _[He turns again, appealing to Tarleton]_ Maynt I have my mother's photographs back again? _[Mrs Tarleton

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Catriona by Robert Louis Stevenson:

to purchase greater safety. No doubt, until I had declared and cleared myself, I might any day encounter Mungo Campbell or the sheriff's officer, and be recognised, and dragged into the Appin murder by the heels; and, no doubt, in case I could manage my declaration with success, I should breathe more free for ever after. But when I looked this argument full in the face I could see nothing to be ashamed of. As for the rest, "Here are the two roads," I thought, "and both go to the same place. It's unjust that James should hang if I can save him; and it would be ridiculous in me to have talked so much and then do nothing. It's lucky for James of the Glens that I have boasted beforehand; and none so unlucky for myself, because now I'm committed

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Man against the Sky by Edwin Arlington Robinson:

And I forgive you, I suppose.

"I'll soon be changing as all do, To something we have always been; And you'll be old . . . He liked you, too. I might have killed you then, Eileen.

"I think he liked as much of you As had a reason to be seen, -- As much as God made black and blue. He liked your hair and eyes, Eileen."

Llewellyn and the Tree

Could he have made Priscilla share

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 Dunwich Horror by H. P. Lovecraft:

followed slowly. The sky was growing lighter, and there were signs that the storm had worn itself away. When Armitage inadvertently took a wrong direction, Joe Osborn warned him and walked ahead to show the right one. Courage and confidence were mounting, though the twilight of the almost perpendicular wooded hill which lay towards the end of their short cut, and among whose fantastic ancient trees they had to scramble as if up a ladder, put these qualities to a severe test. At length they emerged on a muddy road to find the sun coming out. They were a little beyond the Seth Bishop place, but bent trees and hideously unmistakable tracks

The Dunwich Horror