Today's Stichomancy for Pablo Picasso
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Chita: A Memory of Last Island by Lafcadio Hearn: stricken all mythology dumb;--thou most wrinkled diving Sea, the
millions of whose years outnumber even the multitude of thy hoary
motions;--thou omniform and most mysterious Sea, mother of the
monsters and the gods,--whence shine eternal youth? Still do thy
waters hold the infinite thrill of that Spirit which brooded
above their face in the Beginning!--still is thy quickening
breath an elixir unto them that flee to thee for life,--like the
breath of young girls, like the breath of children, prescribed
for the senescent by magicians of old,--prescribed unto weazened
elders in the books of the Wizards.
III
|
The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from A Modest Proposal by Jonathan Swift: their computation. It is true, a child just dropt from its dam,
may be supported by her milk, for a solar year, with little other
nourishment: at most not above the value of two shillings, which
the mother may certainly get, or the value in scraps, by her
lawful occupation of begging; and it is exactly at one year old
that I propose to provide for them in such a manner, as, instead
of being a charge upon their parents, or the parish, or wanting
food and raiment for the rest of their lives, they shall, on the
contrary, contribute to the feeding, and partly to the cloathing
of many thousands.
There is likewise another great advantage in my scheme, that it
A Modest Proposal |
| The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Nada the Lily by H. Rider Haggard: till at length it came about by use that we could weep without ceasing
for many hours. No angry woman can weep as we wept in those days; it
was an art, my father, for the teaching of which I received many
cattle, for woe to him who had no tears in those days. Then it was
also that Chaka sent out the captain and fifty soldiers to search for
Umslopogaas, for, though he said nothing more to me of this matter, he
did not believe all the tale that I had told him of the death of
Umslopogaas in the jaws of a lion and the tale of those who were with
me. How that company fared at the hands of Umslopogaas and of Galazi
the Wolf, and at the fangs of the people black and grey, I have told
you, my father. None of them ever came back again. In after days it
Nada the Lily |
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 Hellenica by Xenophon: with directions," etc.; see Paus. III. ix. 1-3.
[5] See Freeman, "Hist. of Federal Government," ch. iv. "Constitution
of the Boeotian League," pp. 162, 163. The Boeotarchs, as
representatives of the several Boeotian cities, were the supreme
military commanders of the League, and, as it would appear, the
general administrators of Federal affairs. "The Boeotarchs of
course command at Delion, but they also act as administrative
magistrates of the League by hindering Agesilaus from sacrificing
at Aulis."
[6] Plut. "Ages." vi.; "Pelop." xxi. See Breitenb. op. cit. Praef. p.
xvi.; and below, III. v. 5; VI. iv. 23.
|
|
|
