Today's Stichomancy for Jon Stewart

The first excerpt represents the element of Air. It speaks of mental influences and the process of thought, and is drawn from Somebody's Little Girl by Martha Young:

to her no way of knowing.

Bessie Bell could at length think of only one way to find out the difference, and that was to ask--to let her ears help her eyes to bring to her some way of knowing.

One day, a dear old lady with white curls all around under her bonnet stopped near the playground and called Bessie Bell to her and gave her some chocolate candy, every piece of candy folded up in its own white paper.

Bessie Bell said: ``Thank you, ma'am.''

Then as the lady still stood by the playground Bessie Bell asked her: ``Are you a Lady, ma'am ?''

The second excerpt represents the element of Fire. It speaks of emotional influences and base passions, and is drawn from King Henry VI by William Shakespeare:

In Oxfordshire shalt muster up thy friends.-- My sovereign, with the loving citizens, Like to his island girt in with the ocean, Or modest Dian circled with her nymphs, Shall rest in London till we come to him.-- Fair lords, take leave and stand not to reply.-- Farewell, my sovereign.

KING HENRY. Farewell, my Hector, and my Troy's true hope.

CLARENCE. In sign of truth I kiss your highness' hand.

The third excerpt represents the element of Water. It speaks of pure spiritual influences and feelings of love, and is drawn from Verses 1889-1896 by Rudyard Kipling:

Before their charge from flank to flank our riven ranks gave way; But of the waters of that flood the Jumna fords ran red. I held by Scindia, my lord, as close as man might hold; A Soobah of the Deccan asks no aid to guard his life; But Holkar's Horse were flying, and our chiefest chiefs were cold, And like a flame among us leapt the long lean Northern knife. I held by Scindia -- my lance from butt to tuft was dyed, The froth of battle bossed the shield and roped the bridle-chain -- What time beneath our horses' feet a maiden rose and cried,

Verses 1889-1896

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 Montezuma's Daughter by H. Rider Haggard:

and he rambled off into the tale of how he had set de Garcia on his horse after I had beaten him, nor could I bring him back from it.

Casting him a piece of money, I set spurs to my weary horse and cantered up the bridle path, leaving the Mill House on my left, and as I went, the beat of his hoofs seemed to echo the old man's words, 'All dead, all dead!' Doubtless Lily was dead also, or if she was not dead, when the tidings came that I had been drowned at sea, she would have married. Being so fair and sweet she would surely not have lacked for suitors, nor could it be believed that she had worn her life away mourning over the lost love of her

Montezuma's Daughter