Today's Stichomancy for T. S. Eliot

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Cromwell by William Shakespeare:

And all his children die for want of food. The Jewels that I have brought to Antwerp Are recond to be worth five thousand pound, Which scarcely stood me in three hundreth pound. I bought them at an easy kind of rate; I care not which way they came by them That sold them me, it comes not near my heart: And least thy should be stolen--as sure they are-- I thought it meet to sell them here in Antwerp, And so have left them in the Governour's hand, Who offers me within two hundreth pound

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Seraphita by Honore de Balzac:

and He is not; spiritually and materially, you have made God impossible. Listen to the Word of human Reason forced to its ultimate conclusions.

"In bringing God face to face with the Great Whole, we see that only two states are possible between them,--either God and Matter are contemporaneous, or God existed alone before Matter. Were Reason--the light that has guided the human race from the dawn of its existence-- accumulated in one brain, even that mighty brain could not invent a third mode of being without suppressing both Matter and God. Let human philosophies pile mountain upon mountain of words and of ideas, let religions accumulate images and beliefs, revelations and mysteries,

Seraphita

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Underground City by Jules Verne:

In the mine, now empty of coal, escapes of light carburetted hydrogen could not occur. As no explosion need be feared, there was no necessity for interposing between the flame and the surrounding air that metallic screen which prevents the gas from catching fire. The Davy lamp was of no use here. But if the danger did not exist, it was because the cause of it had disappeared, and with this cause, the combustible in which formerly consisted the riches of the Dochart pit.

Harry descended the first steps of the upper ladder. Starr followed. They soon found themselves in a profound obscurity, which was only relieved by the glimmer of the lamp. The young man held it above his head, the better to light

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 King James Bible:

pray thee, whatsoever cometh to thine hand unto thy servants, and to thy son David.

SA1 25:9 And when David's young men came, they spake to Nabal according to all those words in the name of David, and ceased.

SA1 25:10 And Nabal answered David's servants, and said, Who is David? and who is the son of Jesse? there be many servants now a days that break away every man from his master.

SA1 25:11 Shall I then take my bread, and my water, and my flesh that I have killed for my shearers, and give it unto men, whom I know not whence they be?

SA1 25:12 So David's young men turned their way, and went again, and

King James Bible