Today's Stichomancy for Ian McKellan
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from A Drama on the Seashore by Honore de Balzac: clothes, and ordered her to put on hers. He dressed himself. When
dressed, he fetched his brother, and told him to watch before the
door, and warn him of any noise on either of the beaches,--that of
Croisic, or that of Guerande. Then he loaded a gun, and placed it at a
corner of the fireplace. Jacques came home late; he had drunk and
gambled till ten o'clock, and had to get back by way of the Carnouf
point. His uncle heard his hail, and he went over and fetched him, but
said nothing. When Jacques entered the house, his father said to
him,--
"'Sit there,' pointing to the stool. 'You are,' he said, 'before your
father and mother, whom you have offended, and who will now judge
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Reason Discourse by Rene Descartes: knowing all that is intelligibly explained in their author, desire in
addition to find in him the solution of many difficulties of which he says
not a word, and never perhaps so much as thought. Their fashion of
philosophizing, however, is well suited to persons whose abilities fall
below mediocrity; for the obscurity of the distinctions and principles of
which they make use enables them to speak of all things with as much
confidence as if they really knew them, and to defend all that they say on
any subject against the most subtle and skillful, without its being
possible for any one to convict them of error. In this they seem to me to
be like a blind man, who, in order to fight on equal terms with a person
that sees, should have made him descend to the bottom of an intensely dark
Reason Discourse |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson: "And why should it be any of the three, sir?" quoth Alan, drawing
himself up, like one who smelt an offence.
"Only, sir, that you mentioned a king's name," replied
Rankeillor; "and as there has never yet been a King Thomson, or
his fame at least has never come my way, I judged you must refer
to that you had in baptism."
This was just the stab that Alan would feel keenest, and I am
free to confess he took it very ill. Not a word would he answer,
but stepped off to the far end of the kitchen, and sat down and
sulked; and it was not till I stepped after him, and gave him my
hand, and thanked him by title as the chief spring of my success,
Kidnapped |
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 Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe: with any other provisions.
The Spaniards were glad enough to get rid of them, but very
honestly represented to them the certain destruction they were
running into; told them they had suffered such hardships upon that
very spot, that they could, without any spirit of prophecy, tell
them they would be starved or murdered, and bade them consider of
it. The men replied audaciously, they should be starved if they
stayed here, for they could not work, and would not work, and they
could but be starved abroad; and if they were murdered, there was
an end of them; they had no wives or children to cry after them;
and, in short, insisted importunately upon their demand, declaring
Robinson Crusoe |
|
|
