Today's Stichomancy for Robert Oppenheimer

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from On Revenues by Xenophon:

word {eisphoras} is technical. For the exhaustion of the treasury see Dem. "Lept." 464; Grote, "H. G."xi. 326.

[47] Or, "you will not be able to subscribe a single penny more."

[48] {umeis de}, you are masters of the situation. It lies with you to carry on, etc.; {dioikeite} is of course imperative.

[49] Or, "taxes."

[50] Reading, after Zurborg, {dia ta ellimenia}. Or, if the vulg. {dia en limeni}, transl. "an augmentation of market dues at Piraeus."

[51] I.e. as fixed capital, or, "you should expend on plant."

[52] Or, adopting Zurborg's emend, {os an pleista eggignetai}, transl. "for the purposes of the present scheme as far as it may be

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Land that Time Forgot by Edgar Rice Burroughs:

and muscle responded to the quick decision I was forced to make. There was but a single hope--a single chance--and I took it. I raised my rifle to my shoulder and took careful aim. It was a long shot, a dangerous shot, for unless one is accustomed to it, shooting from a considerable altitude is most deceptive work. There is, though, something about marksmanship which is quite beyond all scientific laws.

Upon no other theory can I explain my marksmanship of that moment. Three times my rifle spoke--three quick, short syllables of death. I did not take conscious aim; and yet at each report a beast crumpled in its tracks!

The Land that Time Forgot

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from The Underdogs by Mariano Azuela:

with me!"

"All I'm going to do now is to put this rope around your neck. Look what a pretty white neck you've got."

"Yes, I know what brought you here," Demetrio in- terrupted dryly, scratching his head. "I'm going to have you shot!"

Then, looking at Anastasio he said:

"Take him away. And . . . if he wants to confess, bring the priest to him."

Impassive as ever, Anastasio took the prisoner gently by the arm.

The Underdogs

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 Memories and Portraits by Robert Louis Stevenson:

talk with Cordelia seems even painful. Most of us, by the Protean quality of man, can talk to some degree with all; but the true talk, that strikes out all the slumbering best of us, comes only with the peculiar brethren of our spirits, is founded as deep as love in the constitution of our being, and is a thing to relish with all our energy, while yet we have it, and to be grateful for forever.

CHAPTER XI. TALK AND TALKERS (6)

IN the last paper there was perhaps too much about mere debate; and there was nothing said at all about that kind of talk which is