Today's Stichomancy for Thomas Edison

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:

prophete a dit des mots d'epouvante. Peut-etre e cause de cela va- t-il arriver un malheur. N'en parlons pas . . . Noble Herodias, nous oublions nos convives. Verse-moi e boire, ma bien-aimee. Remplissez de vin les grandes coupes d'argent et les grandes coupes de verre. Je vais boire e la sante de Cesar. Il y a des Romains ici, il faut boire e la sante de Cesar.

TOUS. Cesar! Cesar!

HERODE. Vous ne remarquez pas comme votre fille est pale.

HERODIAS. Qu'est-ce que cela vous fait qu'elle soit pale ou non?

HERODE. Jamais je ne l'ai vue si pale.

HERODIAS. Il ne faut pas la regarder.

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from The Varieties of Religious Experience by William James:

mono-ideism--an imaginary figure of Christ, for example, coming fully to occupy the mind. Sensorial images of this sort, whether literal or symbolic, play an enormous part in mysticism.[251] But in certain cases imagery may fall away entirely, and in the very highest raptures it tends to do so. The state of consciousness becomes then insusceptible of any verbal description. Mystical teachers are unanimous as to this. Saint John of the Cross, for instance, one of the best of them, thus describes the condition called the "union of love," which, he says, is reached by "dark contemplation." In this the Deity compenetrates the soul, but in such a hidden way that the soul--

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Alcibiades I by Plato:

SOCRATES: But what is the other agreement of which you speak, and about what? what art can give that agreement? And does that which gives it to the state give it also to the individual, so as to make him consistent with himself and with another?

ALCIBIADES: I should suppose so.

SOCRATES: But what is the nature of the agreement?--answer, and faint not.

ALCIBIADES: I mean to say that there should be such friendship and agreement as exists between an affectionate father and mother and their son, or between brothers, or between husband and wife.

SOCRATES: But can a man, Alcibiades, agree with a woman about the spinning of wool, which she understands and he does not?

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 Paz by Honore de Balzac:

said the footman, returning. "He is at the stables; as soon as he has changed his dress Comte Paz will present himself to Madame."

"What was he doing at the stables?"

"He was showing them how to groom Madame's horse," said the man. "He was not pleased with the way Constantin did it."

The countess looked at the footman. He was perfectly serious and did not add to his words the sort of smile by which servants usually comment on the actions of a superior who seems to them to derogate from his position.

"Ah! he was grooming Cora."

"Madame la comtesse intends to ride out this morning?" said the