Today's Stichomancy for Jay Leno
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals by Charles Darwin: These may consist of movements of any part of the body,
as the wagging of a dog's tail, the shrugging of a man's shoulders,
the erection of the hair, the exudation of perspiration,
the state of the capillary circulation, laboured breathing,
and the use of the vocal or other sound-producing instruments.
Even insects express anger, terror, jealousy, and love
by their stridulation. With man the respiratory organs are
of especial importance in expression, not only in a direct,
but in a still higher degree in an indirect manner.
Few points are more interesting in our present subject
than the extraordinarily complex chain of events which lead
Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals |
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Rape of Lucrece by William Shakespeare: Your Lordship's in all duty,
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.
THE ARGUMENT.
LUCIUS TARQUINIUS (for his excessive pride surnamed Superbus),
after he had caused his own father-in-law, Servius Tullius, to be
cruelly murdered, and, contrary to the Roman laws and customs,
not requiring or staying for the people's suffrages, had
possessed himself of the kingdom, went, accompanied with his sons
and other noblemen of Rome, to besiege Ardea. During which siege
the principal men of the army meeting one evening at the tent of
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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 Call of Cthulhu by H. P. Lovecraft: touched the back edge of the block, the seat occupied the centre,
whilst the long, curved claws of the doubled-up, crouching hind
legs gripped the front edge and extended a quarter of the way
clown toward the bottom of the pedestal. The cephalopod head was
bent forward, so that the ends of the facial feelers brushed the
backs of huge fore paws which clasped the croucher's elevated
knees. The aspect of the whole was abnormally life-like, and the
more subtly fearful because its source was so totally unknown.
Its vast, awesome, and incalculable age was unmistakable; yet
not one link did it shew with any known type of art belonging
to civilisation's youth - or indeed to any other time. Totally
Call of Cthulhu |
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 Cousin Betty by Honore de Balzac: his time, and how many he has known! What had du Tillet or Popinot
twenty years since? They were both pottering round in Daddy
Birotteau's shop, with not a penny of capital but their determination
to get on, which, in my opinion, is the best capital a man can have.
Money may be eaten through, but you don't eat through your
determination. Why, what had I? The will to get on, and plenty of
pluck. At this day du Tillet is a match for the greatest folks; little
Popinot, the richest druggist of the Rue des Lombards, became a
deputy, now he is in office.--Well, one of these free lances, as we
say on the stock market, of the pen, or of the brush, is the only man
in Paris who would marry a penniless beauty, for they have courage
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