Today's Stichomancy for George Bernard Shaw
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton: me if I do." She turned from the fire to look at him.
"There are only two people here who make me feel as
if they understood what I mean and could explain
things to me: you and Mr. Beaufort."
Archer winced at the joining of the names, and then,
with a quick readjustment, understood, sympathised
and pitied. So close to the powers of evil she must have
lived that she still breathed more freely in their air. But
since she felt that he understood her also, his business
would be to make her see Beaufort as he really was,
with all he represented--and abhor it.
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Records of a Family of Engineers by Robert Louis Stevenson: beams of their insulated habitation.
[Tuesday, 23rd Oct.]
The wind had shifted in the night to N.W., and blew a
fresh gale, while the sea broke with violence upon the rock.
It was found impossible to land, but the writer, from the
boat, hailed Mr. Dove, and directed the ball to be immediately
fixed. The necessary preparations were accordingly made,
while the vessel made short tacks on the southern side of the
rock, in comparatively smooth water. At noon Mr. Dove,
assisted by Mr. James Slight, Mr. Robert Selkirk, Mr. James
Glen, and Mr. John Gibson, plumber, with considerable
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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 A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: hands, I saw that the sinews stood out like cords of iron. Everything
about him denoted strength of constitution. I noticed in a corner of
the grotto a quantity of moss, and on a sort of ledge carved by nature
on the granite, a loaf of bread, which covered the mouth of an
earthenware jug. Never had my imagination, when it carried me to the
deserts where early Christian anchorites spent their lives, depicted
to my mind a form more grandly religious nor more horribly repentant
than that of this man. You, who have a life-long experience of the
confessional, dear uncle, you may never, perhaps, have seen so awful a
remorse,--remorse sunk in the waves of prayer, the ceaseless
supplication of a mute despair. This fisherman, this mariner, this
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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 Chinese Boy and Girl by Isaac Taylor Headland: concerning games played by the girls. Of course, it was
impossible to do it alone, for the appearance of a man
among a crowd of little girls in China is similar to that of a
hawk among a flock of small chicks--it results in a tittering
and scattering in every direction, or a gathering together in
a dock under the shelter of the school roof or the wings of
the teacher. One of the teachers, however, Miss Effie
Young, kindly consented to go with us, and a goodly
number of the small girls, after a less than usual amount of
tittering and whispering, gathered about us to see what was
wanted. The smallest among them was the most brave,
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