Today's Stichomancy for Nicholas Copernicus

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling:

But that were done by a stanchion, an' not by a bullock at all, An' I lay still for seven weeks convalessing of the fall, An' readin' the shiny Scripture texts in the Seaman's Hospital. An' I spoke to God of our Contract, an' He says to my prayer: "I never puts on My ministers no more than they can bear. So back you go to the cattle-boats an' preach My Gospel there. "For human life is chancy at any kind of trade, But most of all, as well you know, when the steers are mad-afraid;

Verses 1889-1896

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Baby Mine by Margaret Mayo:

"But you don't understand," persisted Aggie. "They sent the 'NIGHT message' TO-DAY. Alfred's coming on a special. He'll be here tonight."

"Thank goodness for that!" cried Zoie, and the next instant she was waltzing gaily about the room.

"That's all very well," answered Aggie, as she followed Zoie with anxious eyes, "but WHERE'S YOUR BABY?"

"Good heavens!" cried Zoie, and for the first time she became conscious of their predicament. She gazed at Aggie in consternation. "I forgot all about it," she said, and then asked with growing anxiety, "What can we DO?"

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Russia in 1919 by Arthur Ransome:

in a country where so many of the peasantry will judge their value by nothing else.

I reminded him of the hostility roused in some villages by mistakes in the assessment and collecting of the Extraordinary Tax, mistakes which (so other Communists had assured me) would cost them more, politically, than the tax was worth to them, and asked him, "Will you not have great difficulty in getting the exchange made, and are you not running the risk of providing the reactionaries with a new profitable basis of agitation?"

He said that of course they would not make the attempt

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 Twice Told Tales by Nathaniel Hawthorne:

steps of the meeting-house.

It was the Wanton Gospeller. A sad and quiet smile flitted across the mild visage of Roger Williams. But Endicott, in the excitement of the moment, shook his sword wrathfully at the culprit--an ominous gesture from a man like him.

"What hast thou to do with conscience, thou knave?" cried he. "I said liberty to worship God, not license to profane and ridicule him. Break not in upon my speech, or I will lay thee neck and heels till this time tomorrow! Hearken to me, friends, nor heed that accursed rhapsodist. As I was saying, we have sacrificed all things, and have come to a land whereof the old world hath

Twice Told Tales