Today's Stichomancy for Ridley Scott

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Salome by Oscar Wilde:

leur lourdeur, leurs gros mots. Ah! que je deteste les Romains! Ce sont des gens communs, et ils se donnent des airs de grands seigneurs.

LE JEUNE SYRIEN. Ne voulez-vous pas vous asseoir, princesse?

LE PAGE D'HERODIAS. Pourquoi lui parler? Pourquoi la regarder? . . . Oh! il va arriver un malheur.

SALOME. Que c'est bon de voir la lune! Elle ressemble e une petite piece de monnaie. On dirait une toute petite fleur d'argent. Elle est froide et chaste, la lune . . . Je suis sure qu'elle est vierge. Elle a la beaute d'une vierge . . . Oui, elle est vierge. Elle ne s'est jamais souillee. Elle ne s'est jamais donnee aux hommes,

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane:

he sighed with comfortable delight.

The loud young soldier watched his comrade with an air of satisfaction. He later produced an extensive handkerchief from his pocket. He folded it into a manner of bandage and soused water from the other canteen upon the middle of it. This crude arrangement he bound over the youth's head, tying the ends in a queer knot at the back of the neck.

"There," he said, moving off and surveying his deed, "yeh look like th' devil, but I bet yeh

The Red Badge of Courage

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Scaramouche by Rafael Sabatini:

cheeks. She rose suddenly. She was trembling.

"Andre-Louis!" she exclaimed.

CHAPTER XIV

THE BARRIER

That gift of laughter of his seemed utterly extinguished. For once there was no gleam of humour in those dark eyes, as they continued to consider her with that queer stare of scrutiny. And yet, though his gaze was sombre, his thoughts were not. With his cruelly true mental vision which pierced through shams, and his capacity for detached observation - which properly applied might have carried him very far, indeed - he perceived the grotesqueness, the artificiality

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 Pool of Blood in the Pastor's Study by Grace Isabel Colbron and Augusta Groner:

Finally he turned back once more to the main altar on his way out. But he did not leave the church as he intended. His last look at the altar had showed him something that attracted his attention and he walked up the three steps to examine it more closely.

What he had seen was something unusual about one of the silver candlesticks. These candlesticks had three feet, and five of them were placed in such a way that the two front feet were turned toward the spectator. But on the end candlestick nearest Muller the single foot projected out to the front of the altar. This candlestick therefore had been set down hastily, not placed carefully in the order of things as were the others.