Today's Stichomancy for Sigmund Freud
| The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from The Firm of Nucingen by Honore de Balzac: well shod; his tailor loved to clothe him. Godefroid neither rolled
his r's, nor lapsed into Normanisms nor Gascon; he spoke pure and
correct French, and tied his cravat correctly (like Finot). He had
neither father nor mother--such luck had he!--and his guardian was the
Marquis d'Aiglemont, his cousin by marriage. He could go among city
people as he chose, and the Faubourg Saint-Germain could make no
objection; for, fortunately, a young bachelor is allowed to make his
own pleasure his sole rule of life, he is at liberty to betake himself
wherever amusement is to be found, and to shun the gloomy places where
cares flourish and multiply. Finally, he had been vaccinated (you know
what I mean, Blondet).
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The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from Hiero by Xenophon: lover of that state, without which he can neither hope for safety nor
prosperity. On the other hand, his tyrrany, the exigencies of despotic
rule, compel him to incriminate his fatherland.[5] To train his
citizens to soldiery, to render them brave warriors, and well armed,
confers no pleasure on him; rather he will take delight to make his
foreigners more formidable than those to whom the state belongs, and
these foreigners he will depend on as his body-guard.
[5] Or, "depreciate the land which gave him birth." Holden cf.
"Cyrop." VII. ii. 22. See Sturz, s.v.
Nay more, not even in the years of plenty,[6] when abundance of all
blessings reigns, not even then may the tyrant's heart rejoice amid
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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 Parmenides by Plato: must not that least fraction, if it does not partake of the one, be a
multitude and not one?
It must.
And if we continue to look at the other side of their nature, regarded
simply, and in itself, will not they, as far as we see them, be unlimited
in number?
Certainly.
And yet, when each several part becomes a part, then the parts have a limit
in relation to the whole and to each other, and the whole in relation to
the parts.
Just so.
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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 Lay Morals by Robert Louis Stevenson: wonder talking like a book.
Meanwhile they had arrived at where the track comes out above
the river dell, and saw in front of them the castle, faintly
shadowed on the night, covering with its broken battlements a
bold projection of the bank, and showing at the extreme end,
where were the habitable tower and wing, some crevices of
candle-light. Hence she called loudly upon her uncle, and he
was seen to issue, lantern in hand, from the tower door, and,
where the ruins did not intervene, to pick his way over the
swarded courtyard, avoiding treacherous cellars and winding
among blocks of fallen masonry. The arch of the great gate
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