TERMS STARTING WITH
mineralist ::: n. --> One versed in minerals; mineralogist.
mineralization ::: n. --> The process of mineralizing, or forming a mineral by combination of a metal with another element; also, the process of converting into a mineral, as a bone or a plant.
The act of impregnating with a mineral, as water.
The conversion of a cell wall into a material of a stony nature.
mineralized ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Mineralize
mineralizer ::: n. --> An element which is combined with a metal, thus forming an ore. Thus, in galena, or lead ore, sulphur is a mineralizer; in hematite, oxygen is a mineralizer.
mineralize ::: v. t. --> To transform into a mineral.
To impregnate with a mineral; as, mineralized water. ::: v. i. --> To go on an excursion for observing and collecting minerals; to mineralogize.
mineralizing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Mineralize
mineralogical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to mineralogy; as, a mineralogical table.
mineralogically ::: adv. --> According to the principles of, or with reference to, mineralogy.
mineralogies ::: pl. --> of Mineralogy
mineralogist ::: n. --> One versed in mineralogy; one devoted to the study of minerals.
A carrier shell (Phorus).
mineralogize ::: v. i. --> To study mineralogy by collecting and examining minerals.
mineralogy ::: n. --> The science which treats of minerals, and teaches how to describe, distinguish, and classify them.
A treatise or book on this science.
mineral ::: v. i. --> An inorganic species or substance occurring in nature, having a definite chemical composition and usually a distinct crystalline form. Rocks, except certain glassy igneous forms, are either simple minerals or aggregates of minerals.
A mine.
Anything which is neither animal nor vegetable, as in the most general classification of things into three kingdoms (animal, vegetable, and mineral).
MINERAL KINGDOM The first or lowest natural kingdom of evolution.
In the mineral kingdom the monad consciousness begins to be activated. In the lowest physical molecular kind (49:7) the monads learn to distinguish differences in temperature and pressure. It is in this kingdom that the vibrations become violent enough for a first apprehension of inner and outer. And thus begins that process of objectivization of consciousness which reaches its perfection in the animal kingdom. The monads gradually learn to apprehend external realities.
Consciousness in the mineral kingdom is gradually manifested as a tendency to repetition, after innumerable experiences becoming organized habit, or nature. Increased consciousness results in instinctive striving to adaptation.
By being absorbed by plants and experiencing the process of vitalization in these, mineral consciousness learns to receive and adapt itself to etheric vibrations... a condition of entering into the vegetable kingdom. K 1.33.2,5f
MINERAL MONAD The monad during evolution in the mineral kingdom is called mineral monad.
TERMS ANYWHERE
4. In the philosophy of nature, aggregate has various meanings: it is a mass formed into clusters (anat.); a compound or an organized mass of individuals (zool.); an agglomerate (bot.) an agglomeration of distinct minerals separable by mechanical means (geol.); or, in general, a compound mass in which the elements retain their essential individuality. -- T.G.
adamant ::: n. --> A stone imagined by some to be of impenetrable hardness; a name given to the diamond and other substances of extreme hardness; but in modern mineralogy it has no technical signification. It is now a rhetorical or poetical name for the embodiment of impenetrable hardness.
Lodestone; magnet.
aerator ::: n. --> That which supplies with air; esp. an apparatus used for charging mineral waters with gas and in making soda water.
aethiops mineral ::: --> Same as Ethiops mineral.
albertite ::: n. --> A bituminous mineral resembling asphaltum, found in the county of A. /bert, New Brunswick.
albite ::: n. --> A mineral of the feldspar family, triclinic in crystallization, and in composition a silicate of alumina and soda. It is a common constituent of granite and of various igneous rocks. See Feldspar.
aluminous ::: a. --> Pertaining to or containing alum, or alumina; as, aluminous minerals, aluminous solution.
alunogen ::: n. --> A white fibrous mineral frequently found on the walls of mines and quarries, chiefly hydrous sulphate of alumina; -- also called feather alum, and hair salt.
amphibole ::: n. --> A common mineral embracing many varieties varying in color and in composition. It occurs in monoclinic crystals; also massive, generally with fibrous or columnar structure. The color varies from white to gray, green, brown, and black. It is a silicate of magnesium and calcium, with usually aluminium and iron. Some common varieties are tremolite, actinolite, asbestus, edenite, hornblende (the last name being also used as a general term for the whole species). Amphibole is a constituent of many crystalline rocks, as syenite,
amphibolic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to amphiboly; ambiguous; equivocal.
Of or resembling the mineral amphibole.
amygdaloid ::: n. --> A variety of trap or basaltic rock, containing small cavities, occupied, wholly or in part, by nodules or geodes of different minerals, esp. agates, quartz, calcite, and the zeolites. When the imbedded minerals are detached or removed by decomposition, it is porous, like lava. ::: a.
analcime ::: n. --> A white or flesh-red mineral, of the zeolite family, occurring in isometric crystals. By friction, it acquires a weak electricity; hence its name.
anhydrite ::: n. --> A mineral of a white or a slightly bluish color, usually massive. It is anhydrous sulphate of lime, and differs from gypsum in not containing water (whence the name).
ankerite ::: n. --> A mineral closely related to dolomite, but containing iron.
anorthite ::: n. --> A mineral of the feldspar family, commonly occurring in small glassy crystals, also a constituent of some igneous rocks. It is a lime feldspar. See Feldspar.
anthophyllite ::: n. --> A mineral of the hornblende group, of a yellowish gray or clove brown color.
anthracite ::: n. --> A hard, compact variety of mineral coal, of high luster, differing from bituminous coal in containing little or no bitumen, in consequence of which it burns with a nearly non luminous flame. The purer specimens consist almost wholly of carbon. Also called glance coal and blind coal.
apollinaris water ::: --> An effervescing alkaline mineral water used as a table beverage. It is obtained from a spring in Apollinarisburg, near Bonn.
apophyllite ::: n. --> A mineral relating to the zeolites, usually occurring in square prisms or octahedrons with pearly luster on the cleavage surface. It is a hydrous silicate of calcium and potassium.
aragonite ::: n. --> A mineral identical in composition with calcite or carbonate of lime, but differing from it in its crystalline form and some of its physical characters.
arborescence ::: n. --> The state of being arborescent; the resemblance to a tree in minerals, or crystallizations, or groups of crystals in that form; as, the arborescence produced by precipitating silver.
arborization ::: n. --> The appearance or figure of a tree or plant, as in minerals or fossils; a dendrite.
arsenopyrite ::: n. --> A mineral of a tin-white color and metallic luster, containing arsenic, sulphur, and iron; -- also called arsenical pyrites and mispickel.
artificial ::: a. --> Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers.
Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine.
Artful; cunning; crafty.
Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as, artificial grasses.
ashes ::: n. pl. --> The earthy or mineral particles of combustible substances remaining after combustion, as of wood or coal.
Specifically: The remains of the human body when burnt, or when "returned to dust" by natural decay.
The color of ashes; deathlike paleness.
asphaltum ::: n. --> Mineral pitch, Jews&
babingtonite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in triclinic crystals approaching pyroxene in angle, and of a greenish black color. It is a silicate of iron, manganese, and lime.
barite ::: n. --> Native sulphate of barium, a mineral occurring in transparent, colorless, white to yellow crystals (generally tabular), also in granular form, and in compact massive forms resembling marble. It has a high specific gravity, and hence is often called heavy spar. It is a common mineral in metallic veins.
baryto-calcite ::: n. --> A mineral of a white or gray color, occurring massive or crystallized. It is a compound of the carbonates of barium and calcium.
beryl ::: n. --> A mineral of great hardness, and, when transparent, of much beauty. It occurs in hexagonal prisms, commonly of a green or bluish green color, but also yellow, pink, and white. It is a silicate of aluminium and glucinum (beryllium). The aquamarine is a transparent, sea-green variety used as a gem. The emerald is another variety highly prized in jewelry, and distinguished by its deep color, which is probably due to the presence of a little oxide of chromium.
bisilicate ::: n. --> A salt of metasilicic acid; -- so called because the ratio of the oxygen of the silica to the oxygen of the base is as two to one. The bisilicates include many of the most common and important minerals.
bismuth ::: n. --> One of the elements; a metal of a reddish white color, crystallizing in rhombohedrons. It is somewhat harder than lead, and rather brittle; masses show broad cleavage surfaces when broken across. It melts at 507¡ Fahr., being easily fused in the flame of a candle. It is found in a native state, and as a constituent of some minerals. Specific gravity 9.8. Atomic weight 207.5. Symbol Bi.
bismuthyl ::: n. --> Hydrous carbonate of bismuth, an earthy mineral of a dull white or yellowish color.
bitumen ::: n. --> Mineral pitch; a black, tarry substance, burning with a bright flame; Jew&
blende ::: n. --> A mineral, called also sphalerite, and by miners mock lead, false galena, and black-jack. It is a zinc sulphide, but often contains some iron. Its color is usually yellow, brown, or black, and its luster resinous.
A general term for some minerals, chiefly metallic sulphides which have a somewhat brilliant but nonmetallic luster.
mineralist ::: n. --> One versed in minerals; mineralogist.
mineralization ::: n. --> The process of mineralizing, or forming a mineral by combination of a metal with another element; also, the process of converting into a mineral, as a bone or a plant.
The act of impregnating with a mineral, as water.
The conversion of a cell wall into a material of a stony nature.
mineralized ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Mineralize
mineralizer ::: n. --> An element which is combined with a metal, thus forming an ore. Thus, in galena, or lead ore, sulphur is a mineralizer; in hematite, oxygen is a mineralizer.
mineralize ::: v. t. --> To transform into a mineral.
To impregnate with a mineral; as, mineralized water. ::: v. i. --> To go on an excursion for observing and collecting minerals; to mineralogize.
mineralizing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Mineralize
mineralogical ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to mineralogy; as, a mineralogical table.
mineralogically ::: adv. --> According to the principles of, or with reference to, mineralogy.
mineralogies ::: pl. --> of Mineralogy
mineralogist ::: n. --> One versed in mineralogy; one devoted to the study of minerals.
A carrier shell (Phorus).
mineralogize ::: v. i. --> To study mineralogy by collecting and examining minerals.
mineralogy ::: n. --> The science which treats of minerals, and teaches how to describe, distinguish, and classify them.
A treatise or book on this science.
mineral ::: v. i. --> An inorganic species or substance occurring in nature, having a definite chemical composition and usually a distinct crystalline form. Rocks, except certain glassy igneous forms, are either simple minerals or aggregates of minerals.
A mine.
Anything which is neither animal nor vegetable, as in the most general classification of things into three kingdoms (animal, vegetable, and mineral).
boltonite ::: n. --> A granular mineral of a grayish or yellowish color, found in Bolton, Massachusetts. It is a silicate of magnesium, belonging to the chrysolite family.
boncilate ::: n. --> A substance composed of ground bone, mineral matters, etc., hardened by pressure, and used for making billiard balls, boxes, etc.
boracite ::: n. --> A mineral of a white or gray color occurring massive and in isometric crystals; in composition it is a magnesium borate with magnesium chloride.
borax ::: n. --> A white or gray crystalline salt, with a slight alkaline taste, used as a flux, in soldering metals, making enamels, fixing colors on porcelain, and as a soap. It occurs native in certain mineral springs, and is made from the boric acid of hot springs in Tuscany. It was originally obtained from a lake in Thibet, and was sent to Europe under the name of tincal. Borax is a pyroborate or tetraborate of sodium, Na2B4O7.10H2O.
boron ::: n. --> A nonmetallic element occurring abundantly in borax. It is reduced with difficulty to the free state, when it can be obtained in several different forms; viz., as a substance of a deep olive color, in a semimetallic form, and in colorless quadratic crystals similar to the diamond in hardness and other properties. It occurs in nature also in boracite, datolite, tourmaline, and some other minerals. Atomic weight 10.9. Symbol B.
borosilicate ::: n. --> A double salt of boric and silicic acids, as in the natural minerals tourmaline, datolite, etc.
botryoidal ::: a. --> Having the form of a bunch of grapes; like a cluster of grapes, as a mineral presenting an aggregation of small spherical or spheroidal prominences.
bottling ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Bottle ::: n. --> The act or the process of putting anything into bottles (as beer, mineral water, etc.) and corking the bottles.
boulangerite ::: n. --> A mineral of a bluish gray color and metallic luster, usually in plumose masses, also compact. It is a sulphide of antimony and lead.
bournonite ::: n. --> A mineral of a steel-gray to black color and metallic luster, occurring crystallized, often in twin crystals shaped like cogwheels (wheel ore), also massive. It is a sulphide of antimony, lead, and copper.
bovey coal ::: --> A kind of mineral coal, or brown lignite, burning with a weak flame, and generally a disagreeable odor; -- found at Bovey Tracey, Devonshire, England. It is of geological age of the oolite, and not of the true coal era.
breccia ::: n. --> A rock composed of angular fragments either of the same mineral or of different minerals, etc., united by a cement, and commonly presenting a variety of colors.
brewsterite ::: n. --> A rare zeolitic mineral occurring in white monoclinic crystals with pearly luster. It is a hydrous silicate of aluminia, baryta, and strontia.
bromine ::: n. --> One of the elements, related in its chemical qualities to chlorine and iodine. Atomic weight 79.8. Symbol Br. It is a deep reddish brown liquid of a very disagreeable odor, emitting a brownish vapor at the ordinary temperature. In combination it is found in minute quantities in sea water, and in many saline springs. It occurs also in the mineral bromyrite.
bromyrite ::: n. --> Silver bromide, a rare mineral; -- called also bromargyrite.
brookite ::: n. --> A mineral consisting of titanic oxide, and hence identical with rutile and octahedrite in composition, but crystallizing in the orthorhombic system.
brucite ::: n. --> A white, pearly mineral, occurring thin and foliated, like talc, and also fibrous; a native magnesium hydrate.
The mineral chondrodite.
bruise ::: v. t. --> To injure, as by a blow or collision, without laceration; to contuse; as, to bruise one&
brushite ::: n. --> A white or gray crystalline mineral consisting of the acid phosphate of calcium.
cabazite ::: n. --> A mineral occuring in glassy rhombohedral crystals, varying, in color from white to yellow or red. It is essentially a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime. Called also chabasie.
cabrerite ::: n. --> An apple-green mineral, a hydrous arseniate of nickel, cobalt, and magnesia; -- so named from the Sierra Cabrera, Spain.
cadmia ::: n. --> An oxide of zinc which collects on the sides of furnaces where zinc is sublimed. Formerly applied to the mineral calamine.
caesium ::: n. --> A rare alkaline metal found in mineral water; -- so called from the two characteristic blue lines in its spectrum. It was the first element discovered by spectrum analysis, and is the most strongly basic and electro-positive substance known. Symbol Cs. Atomic weight 132.6.
calaite ::: n. --> A mineral. See Turquoise.
calamine ::: n. --> A mineral, the hydrous silicate of zinc.
calaverite ::: n. --> A bronze-yellow massive mineral with metallic luster; a telluride of gold; -- first found in Calaveras County California.
calomel ::: n. --> Mild chloride of mercury, Hg2Cl2, a heavy, white or yellowish white substance, insoluble and tasteless, much used in medicine as a mercurial and purgative; mercurous chloride. It occurs native as the mineral horn quicksilver.
calx ::: n. --> Quicklime.
The substance which remains when a metal or mineral has been subjected to calcination or combustion by heat, and which is, or may be, reduced to a fine powder.
Broken and refuse glass, returned to the post.
cancrinite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in hexagonal crystals, also massive, generally of a yellow color, containing silica, alumina, lime, soda, and carbon dioxide.
cannel coal ::: --> A kind of mineral coal of a black color, sufficiently hard and solid to be cut and polished. It burns readily, with a clear, yellow flame, and on this account has been used as a substitute for candles.
carbon ::: n. --> An elementary substance, not metallic in its nature, which is present in all organic compounds. Atomic weight 11.97. Symbol C. it is combustible, and forms the base of lampblack and charcoal, and enters largely into mineral coals. In its pure crystallized state it constitutes the diamond, the hardest of known substances, occuring in monometric crystals like the octahedron, etc. Another modification is graphite, or blacklead, and in this it is soft, and occurs in hexagonal prisms or tables. When united with oxygen it forms carbon dioxide,
cassiterite ::: n. --> Native tin dioxide; tin stone; a mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals of reddish brown color, and brilliant adamantine luster; also massive, sometimes in compact forms with concentric fibrous structure resembling wood (wood tin), also in rolled fragments or pebbly (Stream tin). It is the chief source of metallic tin. See Black tin, under Black.
castorite ::: n. --> A variety of the mineral called petalite, from Elba.
celestite ::: n. --> Native strontium sulphate, a mineral so named from its occasional delicate blue color. It occurs crystallized, also in compact massive and fibrous forms.
cerargyrite ::: n. --> Native silver chloride, a mineral of a white to pale yellow or gray color, darkening on exposure to the light. It may be cut by a knife, like lead or horn (hence called horn silver).
cerin ::: n. --> A waxy substance extracted by alcohol or ether from cork; sometimes applied also to the portion of beeswax which is soluble in alcohol.
A variety of the mineral allanite.
cerite ::: n. --> A gastropod shell belonging to the family Cerithiidae; -- so called from its hornlike form.
A mineral of a brownish of cherry-red color, commonly massive. It is a hydrous silicate of cerium and allied metals.
cerium ::: n. --> A rare metallic element, occurring in the minerals cerite, allanite, monazite, etc. Symbol Ce. Atomic weight 141.5. It resembles iron in color and luster, but is soft, and both malleable and ductile. It tarnishes readily in the air.
cerussite ::: n. --> Native lead carbonate; a mineral occurring in colorless, white, or yellowish transparent crystals, with an adamantine, also massive and compact.
chalcocite ::: n. --> Native copper sulphide, called also copper glance, and vitreous copper; a mineral of a black color and metallic luster.
chatoyment ::: n. --> Changeableness of color, as in a mineral; play of colors.
chessy copper ::: --> The mineral azurite, found in fine crystallization at Chessy, near Lyons; called also chessylite.
chlorite ::: n. --> The name of a group of minerals, usually of a green color and micaceous to granular in structure. They are hydrous silicates of alumina, iron, and magnesia.
Any salt of chlorous acid; as, chlorite of sodium.
chloropal ::: n. --> A massive mineral, greenish in color, and opal-like in appearance. It is essentially a hydrous silicate of iron.
chondrule ::: n. --> A peculiar rounded granule of some mineral, usually enstatite or chrysolite, found imbedded more or less abundantly in the mass of many meteoric stones, which are hence called chondrites.
chromite ::: n. --> A black submetallic mineral consisting of oxide of chromium and iron; -- called also chromic iron.
A compound or salt of chromous hydroxide regarded as an acid.
chromium ::: n. --> A comparatively rare element occurring most abundantly in the mineral chromite. Atomic weight 52.5. Symbol Cr. When isolated it is a hard, brittle, grayish white metal, fusible with difficulty. Its chief commercial importance is for its compounds, as potassium chromate, lead chromate, etc., which are brilliantly colored and are used dyeing and calico printing. Called also chrome.
chrysoberyl ::: n. --> A mineral, found in crystals, of a yellow to green or brown color, and consisting of aluminia and glucina. It is very hard, and is often used as a gem.
chrysolite ::: n. --> A mineral, composed of silica, magnesia, and iron, of a yellow to green color. It is common in certain volcanic rocks; -- called also olivine and peridot. Sometimes used as a gem. The name was also early used for yellow varieties of tourmaline and topaz.
chrysoprase ::: a brittle, translucent, semiprecious chalcedony (q.v.), a variety of the silica mineral quartz. It owes its bright apple-green colour to colloidally dispersed hydrated nickel silicate. Valued in ancient times as it shone in the dark.
churlish ::: a. --> Like a churl; rude; cross-grained; ungracious; surly; illiberal; niggardly.
Wanting pliancy; unmanageable; unyielding; not easily wrought; as, a churlish soil; the churlish and intractable nature of some minerals.
cimolite ::: n. --> A soft, earthy, clayey mineral, of whitish or grayish color.
clay ::: n. --> A soft earth, which is plastic, or may be molded with the hands, consisting of hydrous silicate of aluminium. It is the result of the wearing down and decomposition, in part, of rocks containing aluminous minerals, as granite. Lime, magnesia, oxide of iron, and other ingredients, are often present as impurities.
Earth in general, as representing the elementary particles of the human body; hence, the human body as formed from such particles.
cobaltite ::: n. --> A mineral of a nearly silver-white color, composed of arsenic, sulphur, and cobalt.
cockle ::: n. --> A bivalve mollusk, with radiating ribs, of the genus Cardium, especially C. edule, used in Europe for food; -- sometimes applied to similar shells of other genera.
A cockleshell.
The mineral black tourmaline or schorl; -- so called by the Cornish miners.
The fire chamber of a furnace.
A hop-drying kiln; an oast.
coke ::: n. --> Mineral coal charred, or depriver of its bitumen, sulphur, or other volatile matter by roasting in a kiln or oven, or by distillation, as in gas works. It is lagerly used where / smokeless fire is required. ::: v. t. --> To convert into coke.
collier ::: n. --> One engaged in the business of digging mineral coal or making charcoal, or in transporting or dealing in coal.
A vessel employed in the coal trade.
cologne earth ::: --> An earth of a deep brown color, containing more vegetable than mineral matter; an earthy variety of lignite, or brown coal.
coloradoite ::: n. --> Mercury telluride, an iron-black metallic mineral, found in Colorado.
columbite ::: n. --> A mineral of a black color, submetallic luster, and high specific specific gravity. It is a niobate (or columbate) of iron and manganese, containing tantalate of iron; -- first found in New England.
columbium ::: n. --> A rare element of the vanadium group, first found in a variety of the mineral columbite occurring in Connecticut, probably at Haddam. Atomic weight 94.2. Symbol Cb or Nb. Now more commonly called niobium.
condurrite ::: n. --> A variety of the mineral domeykite, or copper arsenide, from the Condurra mine in Cornwall, England.
coquimbite ::: n. --> A mineral consisting principally of sulphate of iron; white copperas; -- so called because found in the province of Coquimbo, Chili.
corallite ::: n. --> A mineral substance or petrifaction, in the form of coral.
One of the individual members of a compound coral; or that part formed by a single coral animal.
crocidolite ::: n. --> A mineral occuring in silky fibers of a lavender blue color. It is related to hornblende and is essentially a silicate of iron and soda; -- called also blue asbestus. A silicified form, in which the fibers penetrating quartz are changed to oxide of iron, is the yellow brown tiger-eye of the jewelers.
cronstedtite ::: n. --> A mineral consisting principally of silicate of iron, and crystallizing in hexagonal prisms with perfect basal cleavage; -- so named from the Swedish mineralogist Cronstedt.
cryptocrystalline ::: a. --> Indistinctly crystalline; -- applied to rocks and minerals, whose state of aggregation is so fine that no distinct particles are visible, even under the microscope.
crystal ::: 1. A mineral, especially a transparent form of quartz, having a crystalline structure, often characterized by external planar faces. 2. Resembling crystal; transparent as water or a liquid. 3. Fig. Sometimes used to describe the eyes.
crystallite ::: n. --> A minute mineral form like those common in glassy volcanic rocks and some slags, not having a definite crystalline outline and not referable to any mineral species, but marking the first step in the crystallization process. According to their form crystallites are called trichites, belonites, globulites, etc.
culm ::: n. --> The stalk or stem of grain and grasses (including the bamboo), jointed and usually hollow.
Mineral coal that is not bituminous; anthracite, especially when found in small masses.
The waste of the Pennsylvania anthracite mines, consisting of fine coal, dust, etc., and used as fuel.
danalite ::: n. --> A mineral occuring in octahedral crystals, also massive, of a reddish color. It is a silicate of iron, zinc manganese, and glucinum, containing sulphur.
decipium ::: n. --> A supposed rare element, said to be associated with cerium, yttrium, etc., in the mineral samarskite, and more recently called samarium. Symbol Dp. See Samarium.
dendrite ::: n. --> A stone or mineral on or in which are branching figures resembling shrubs or trees, produced by a foreign mineral, usually an oxide of manganese, as in the moss agate; also, a crystallized mineral having an arborescent form, e. g., gold or silver; an arborization.
dike ::: n. --> A ditch; a channel for water made by digging.
An embankment to prevent inundations; a levee.
A wall of turf or stone.
A wall-like mass of mineral matter, usually an intrusion of igneous rocks, filling up rents or fissures in the original strata. ::: v. t.
dipyre ::: n. --> A mineral of the scapolite group; -- so called from the double effect of fire upon it, in fusing it, and rendering it phosphorescent.
dolomite ::: n. --> A mineral consisting of the carbonate of lime and magnesia in varying proportions. It occurs in distinct crystals, and in extensive beds as a compact limestone, often crystalline granular, either white or clouded. It includes much of the common white marble. Also called bitter spar.
domeykite ::: n. --> A massive mineral of tin-white or steel-gray color, an arsenide of copper.
dredge ::: n. --> Any instrument used to gather or take by dragging; as: (a) A dragnet for taking up oysters, etc., from their beds. (b) A dredging machine. (c) An iron frame, with a fine net attached, used in collecting animals living at the bottom of the sea.
Very fine mineral matter held in suspension in water.
A mixture of oats and barley. ::: v. t.
drug ::: v. i. --> To drudge; to toil laboriously.
To prescribe or administer drugs or medicines. ::: n. --> A drudge (?).
Any animal, vegetable, or mineral substance used in the composition of medicines; any stuff used in dyeing or in chemical
dufrenite ::: n. --> A mineral of a blackish green color, commonly massive or in nodules. It is a hydrous phosphate of iron.
dyscrasite ::: n. --> A mineral consisting of antimony and silver.
edingtonite ::: n. --> A grayish white zeolitic mineral, in tetragonal crystals. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and baryta.
ehlite ::: n. --> A mineral of a green color and pearly luster; a hydrous phosphate of copper.
elaterite ::: n. --> A mineral resin, of a blackish brown color, occurring in soft, flexible masses; -- called also mineral caoutchouc, and elastic bitumen.
embolite ::: n. --> A mineral consisting of both the chloride and the bromide of silver.
enargite ::: n. --> An iron-black mineral of metallic luster, occurring in small orthorhombic crystals, also massive. It contains sulphur, arsenic, copper, and often silver.
enstatite ::: n. --> A mineral of the pyroxene group, orthorhombic in crystallization; often fibrous and massive; color grayish white or greenish. It is a silicate of magnesia with some iron. Bronzite is a ferriferous variety.
epidote ::: n. --> A mineral, commonly of a yellowish green (pistachio) color, occurring granular, massive, columnar, and in monoclinic crystals. It is a silicate of alumina, lime, and oxide of iron, or manganese.
epistilbite ::: n. --> A crystallized, transparent mineral of the Zeolite family. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime.
erbium ::: n. --> A rare metallic element associated with several other rare elements in the mineral gadolinite from Ytterby in Sweden. Symbol Er. Atomic weight 165.9. Its salts are rose-colored and give characteristic spectra. Its sesquioxide is called erbia.
erythrite ::: n. --> A colorless crystalline substance, C4H6.(OH)4, of a sweet, cooling taste, extracted from certain lichens, and obtained by the decomposition of erythrin; -- called also erythrol, erythroglucin, erythromannite, pseudorcin, cobalt bloom, and under the name phycite obtained from the alga Protococcus vulgaris. It is a tetrabasic alcohol, corresponding to glycol and glycerin.
A rose-red mineral, crystallized and earthy, a hydrous arseniate of cobalt, known also as cobalt bloom; -- called also
eschynite ::: n. --> A rare mineral, containing chiefly niobium, titanium, thorium, and cerium. It was so called by Berzelius on account of the inability of chemical science, at the time of its discovery, to separate some of its constituents.
eucairite ::: n. --> A metallic mineral, a selenide of copper and silver; -- so called by Berzelius on account of its being found soon after the discovery of the metal selenium.
euchroite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in transparent emerald green crystals. It is hydrous arseniate of copper.
eudialyte ::: n. --> A mineral of a brownish red color and vitreous luster, consisting chiefly of the silicates of iron, zirconia, and lime.
eulytite ::: n. --> A mineral, consisting chiefly of the silicate of bismuth, found at Freiberg; -- called also culytine.
euxenite ::: n. --> A brownish black mineral with a metallic luster, found in Norway. It contains niobium, titanium, yttrium, and uranium, with some other metals.
examine ::: v. t. --> To test by any appropriate method; to inspect carefully with a view to discover the real character or state of; to subject to inquiry or inspection of particulars for the purpose of obtaining a fuller insight into the subject of examination, as a material substance, a fact, a reason, a cause, the truth of a statement; to inquire or search into; to explore; as, to examine a mineral; to examine a ship to know whether she is seaworthy; to examine a proposition, theory, or question.
exfoliation ::: n. --> The scaling off of a bone, a rock, or a mineral, etc.; the state of being exfoliated.
fayalite ::: n. --> A black, greenish, or brownish mineral of the chrysolite group. It is a silicate of iron.
feldspath ::: n. --> A name given to a group of minerals, closely related in crystalline form, and all silicates of alumina with either potash, soda, lime, or, in one case, baryta. They occur in crystals and crystalline masses, vitreous in luster, and breaking rather easily in two directions at right angles to each other, or nearly so. The colors are usually white or nearly white, flesh-red, bluish, or greenish.
fergusonite ::: n. --> A mineral of a brownish black color, essentially a tantalo-niobate of yttrium, erbium, and cerium; -- so called after Robert Ferguson.
ficttelite ::: n. --> A white crystallized mineral resin from the Fichtelgebirge, Bavaria.
fluocerite ::: n. --> A fluoride of cerium, occuring near Fahlun in Sweden. Tynosite, from Colorado, is probably the same mineral.
fluorite ::: n. --> Calcium fluoride, a mineral of many different colors, white, yellow, purple, green, red, etc., often very beautiful, crystallizing commonly in cubes with perfect octahedral cleavage; also massive. It is used as a flux. Some varieties are used for ornamental vessels. Also called fluor spar, or simply fluor.
fluxible ::: a. --> Capable of being melted or fused, as a mineral.
flux ::: n. --> The act of flowing; a continuous moving on or passing by, as of a flowing stream; constant succession; change.
The setting in of the tide toward the shore, -- the ebb being called the reflux.
The state of being liquid through heat; fusion.
Any substance or mixture used to promote the fusion of metals or minerals, as alkalies, borax, lime, fluorite.
A fluid discharge from the bowels or other part; especially,
formation ::: n. --> The act of giving form or shape to anything; a forming; a shaping.
The manner in which a thing is formed; structure; construction; conformation; form; as, the peculiar formation of the heart.
A substance formed or deposited.
Mineral deposits and rock masses designated with reference to their origin; as, the siliceous formation about geysers;
franklinite ::: n. --> A kind of mineral of the spinel group.
gadolinite ::: n. --> A mineral of a nearly black color and vitreous luster, and consisting principally of the silicates of yttrium, cerium, and iron.
gangue ::: n. --> The mineral or earthy substance associated with metallic ore.
garnet ::: n. --> A mineral having many varieties differing in color and in their constituents, but with the same crystallization (isometric), and conforming to the same general chemical formula. The commonest color is red, the luster is vitreous, and the hardness greater than that of quartz. The dodecahedron and trapezohedron are the common forms.
A tackle for hoisting cargo in our out.
garnierite ::: n. --> An amorphous mineral of apple-green color; a hydrous silicate of nickel and magnesia. It is an important ore of nickel.
gaylussite ::: n. --> A yellowish white, translucent mineral, consisting of the carbonates of lime and soda, with water.
gem ::: 1. A pearl or mineral that has been cut and polished for use as an ornament. 2. Something that is valued for its beauty or perfection. gems.
geocronite ::: n. --> A lead-gray or grayish blue mineral with a metallic luster, consisting of sulphur, antimony, and lead, with a small proportion of arsenic.
geode ::: n. --> A nodule of stone, containing a cavity, lined with crystals or mineral matter.
The cavity in such a nodule.
geology ::: n. --> The science which treats: (a) Of the structure and mineral constitution of the globe; structural geology. (b) Of its history as regards rocks, minerals, rivers, valleys, mountains, climates, life, etc.; historical geology. (c) Of the causes and methods by which its structure, features, changes, and conditions have been produced; dynamical geology. See Chart of The Geological Series.
A treatise on the science.
get ::: n. --> Jet, the mineral.
Fashion; manner; custom.
Artifice; contrivance.
Offspring; progeny; as, the get of a stallion. ::: v. t. --> To procure; to obtain; to gain possession of; to acquire;
gieseckite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in greenish gray six-sided prisms, having a greasy luster. It is probably a pseudomorph after elaeolite.
glairin ::: n. --> A glairy viscous substance, which forms on the surface of certain mineral waters, or covers the sides of their inclosures; -- called also baregin.
glauberite ::: n. --> A mineral, consisting of the sulphates of soda and lime.
glaucodot ::: n. --> A metallic mineral having a grayish tin-white color, and containing cobalt and iron, with sulphur and arsenic.
glauconite ::: n. --> The green mineral characteristic of the greensand of the chalk and other formations. It is a hydrous silicate of iron and potash. See Greensand.
glaucophane ::: n. --> A mineral of a dark bluish color, related to amphibole. It is characteristic of certain crystalline rocks.
glucinum ::: n. --> A rare metallic element, of a silver white color, and low specific gravity (2.1), resembling magnesium. It never occurs naturally in the free state, but is always combined, usually with silica or alumina, or both; as in the minerals phenacite, chrysoberyl, beryl or emerald, euclase, and danalite. It was named from its oxide glucina, which was known long before the element was isolated. Symbol Gl. Atomic weight 9.1. Called also beryllium.
gmelinite ::: n. --> A rhombohedral zeolitic mineral, related in form and composition to chabazite.
goaf ::: n. --> That part of a mine from which the mineral has been partially or wholly removed; the waste left in old workings; -- called also gob .
greasy ::: superl. --> Composed of, or characterized by, grease; oily; unctuous; as, a greasy dish.
Smeared or defiled with grease.
Like grease or oil; smooth; seemingly unctuous to the touch, as is mineral soapstone.
Fat of body; bulky.
Gross; indelicate; indecent.
Affected with the disease called grease; as, the heels
greenockite ::: n. --> Native cadmium sulphide, a mineral occurring in yellow hexagonal crystals, also as an earthy incrustation.
gummite ::: n. --> A yellow amorphous mineral, essentially a hydrated oxide of uranium derived from the alteration of uraninite.
gypsum ::: n. --> A mineral consisting of the hydrous sulphate of lime (calcium). When calcined, it forms plaster of Paris. Selenite is a transparent, crystalline variety; alabaster, a fine, white, massive variety.
hade ::: n. --> The descent of a hill.
The inclination or deviation from the vertical of any mineral vein. ::: v. i. --> To deviate from the vertical; -- said of a vein, fault, or lode.
haidingerite ::: n. --> A mineral consisting of the arseniate of lime; -- so named in honor of W. Haidinger, of Vienna.
halloysite ::: n. --> A claylike mineral, occurring in soft, smooth, amorphous masses, of a whitish color.
hardness ::: n. --> The quality or state of being hard, literally or figuratively.
The cohesion of the particles on the surface of a body, determined by its capacity to scratch another, or be itself scratched;-measured among minerals on a scale of which diamond and talc form the extremes.
The peculiar quality exhibited by water which has mineral salts dissolved in it. Such water forms an insoluble compound with
hatchettite ::: n. --> Mineral t/ low; a waxy or spermaceti-like substance, commonly of a greenish yellow color.
hauerite ::: n. --> Native sulphide of manganese a reddish brown or brownish black mineral.
hauynite ::: n. --> A blue isometric mineral, characteristic of some volcani/ rocks. It is a silicate of alumina, lime, and soda, with sulphate of lime.
heavy spar ::: --> Native barium sulphate or barite, -- so called because of its high specific gravity as compared with other non-metallic minerals.
helium ::: n. --> A gaseous element found in the atmospheres of the sun and earth and in some rare minerals.
helvite ::: n. --> A mineral of a yellowish color, consisting chiefly of silica, glucina, manganese, and iron, with a little sulphur.
hemacite ::: n. --> A composition made from blood, mixed with mineral or vegetable substances, used for making buttons, door knobs, etc.
herborization ::: n. --> The act of herborizing.
The figure of plants in minerals or fossils.
herborize ::: v. i. --> To search for plants, or new species of plants, with a view to classifying them. ::: v. t. --> To form the figures of plants in; -- said in reference to minerals. See Arborized.
hessite ::: n. --> A lead-gray sectile mineral. It is a telluride of silver.
heulandite ::: n. --> A mineral of the Zeolite family, often occurring in amygdaloid, in foliated masses, and also in monoclinic crystals with pearly luster on the cleavage face. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime.
hubner ::: n. --> A mineral of brownish black color, occurring in columnar or foliated masses. It is native manganese tungstate.
humite ::: n. --> A mineral of a transparent vitreous brown color, found in the ejected masses of Vesuvius. It is a silicate of iron and magnesia, containing fluorine.
hushing ::: p. pr. & vb. n. --> of Hush ::: n. --> The process of washing ore, or of uncovering mineral veins, by a heavy discharge of water from a reservoir; flushing; -- also called booming.
hydrothermal ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to hot water; -- used esp. with reference to the action of heated waters in dissolving, redepositing, and otherwise producing mineral changes within the crust of the globe.
hypersthene ::: n. --> An orthorhombic mineral of the pyroxene group, of a grayish or greenish black color, often with a peculiar bronzelike luster (schiller) on the cleavage surface.
idiomorphous ::: a. --> Having a form of its own.
Apperaing in distinct crystals; -- said of the mineral constituents of a rock.
illinition ::: n. --> A smearing or rubbing in or on; also, that which is smeared or rubbed on, as ointment or liniment.
A thin crust of some extraneous substance formed on minerals.
illutation ::: n. --> The act or operation of smearing the body with mud, especially with the sediment from mineral springs; a mud bath.
inclusion ::: n. --> The act of including, or the state of being included; limitation; restriction; as, the lines of inclusion of his policy.
A foreign substance, either liquid or solid, usually of minute size, inclosed in the mass of a mineral.
iodyrite ::: n. --> Silver iodide, a mineral of a yellowish color.
jamesonite ::: n. --> A steel-gray mineral, of metallic luster, commonly fibrous massive. It is a sulphide of antimony and lead, with a little iron.
jargonic ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the mineral jargon.
jarosite ::: n. --> An ocher-yellow mineral occurring on minute rhombohedral crystals. It is a hydrous sulphate of iron and potash.
karpholite ::: n. --> A fibrous mineral occurring in tufts of a straw-yellow color. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and manganese.
keilhau-ite ::: n. --> A mineral of a brownish black color, related to titanite in form. It consists chiefly of silica, titanium dioxide, lime, and yttria.
kerosene ::: n. --> An oil used for illuminating purposes, formerly obtained from the distillation of mineral wax, bituminous shale, etc., and hence called also coal oil. It is now produced in immense quantities, chiefly by the distillation and purification of petroleum. It consists chiefly of several hydrocarbons of the methane series.
kingdom ::: 1. A territory, state, people, or community ruled or reigned over by a king or queen. 2. Fig. The eternal spiritual sovereignty of God; the realm of this sovereignty. 3. A realm or sphere in which one thing is dominant or supreme. 4. Anything conceived as constituting a realm or sphere of independent action or control. 5. A realm or province of nature, especially one of the three broad divisions of natural objects: the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms. 6. Rarely, in reference to the realm and rule of evil forces. kingdom"s, kingdoms.
kingdom ::: n. --> The rank, quality, state, or attributes of a king; royal authority; sovereign power; rule; dominion; monarchy.
The territory or country subject to a king or queen; the dominion of a monarch; the sphere in which one is king or has control.
An extensive scientific division distinguished by leading or ruling characteristics; a principal division; a department; as, the mineral kingdom.
knebelite ::: n. --> A mineral of a gray, red, brown, or green color, and glistening luster. It is a silicate of iron and manganese.
kobellite ::: n. --> A blackish gray mineral, a sulphide of antimony, bismuth, and lead.
lamina ::: n. --> A thin plate or scale; a layer or coat lying over another; -- said of thin plates or platelike substances, as of bone or minerals.
The blade of a leaf; the broad, expanded portion of a petal or sepal of a flower.
A thin plate or scale; specif., one of the thin, flat processes composing the vane of a feather.
lanarkite ::: n. --> A mineral consisting of sulphate of lead, occurring either massive or in long slender prisms, of a greenish white or gray color.
lanthanum ::: n. --> A rare element of the group of the earth metals, allied to aluminium. It occurs in certain rare minerals, as cerite, gadolinite, orthite, etc., and was so named from the difficulty of separating it from cerium, didymium, and other rare elements with which it is usually associated. Atomic weight 138.5. Symbol La.
lapis lazuli ::: a deep blue mineral composed mainly of lazarite with smaller quantities of other minerals, used mainly as a gem or as a pigment.
lapis lazuli ::: --> An albuminous mineral of a rich blue color. Same as Lazuli, which see.
laumontite ::: n. --> A mineral, of a white color and vitreous luster. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime. Exposed to the air, it loses water, becomes opaque, and crumbles.
lazuli ::: n. --> A mineral of a fine azure-blue color, usually in small rounded masses. It is essentially a silicate of alumina, lime, and soda, with some sodium sulphide, is often marked by yellow spots or veins of sulphide of iron, and is much valued for ornamental work. Called also lapis lazuli, and Armenian stone.
lazulite ::: n. --> A mineral of a light indigo-blue color, occurring in small masses, or in monoclinic crystals; blue spar. It is a hydrous phosphate of alumina and magnesia.
leadhillite ::: n. --> A mineral of a yellowish or greenish white color, consisting of the sulphate and carbonate of lead; -- so called from having been first found at Leadhills, Scotland.
lead ::: n. --> One of the elements, a heavy, pliable, inelastic metal, having a bright, bluish color, but easily tarnished. It is both malleable and ductile, though with little tenacity, and is used for tubes, sheets, bullets, etc. Its specific gravity is 11.37. It is easily fusible, forms alloys with other metals, and is an ingredient of solder and type metal. Atomic weight, 206.4. Symbol Pb (L. Plumbum). It is chiefly obtained from the mineral galena, lead sulphide.
An article made of lead or an alloy of lead
ledge ::: n. --> A shelf on which articles may be laid; also, that which resembles such a shelf in form or use, as a projecting ridge or part, or a molding or edge in joinery.
A shelf, ridge, or reef, of rocks.
A layer or stratum.
A lode; a limited mass of rock bearing valuable mineral.
A piece of timber to support the deck, placed athwartship between beams.
leucite ::: n. --> A mineral having a glassy fracture, occurring in translucent trapezohedral crystals. It is a silicate of alumina and potash. It is found in the volcanic rocks of Italy, especially at Vesuvius.
A leucoplast.
leucitoid ::: n. --> The trapezohedron or tetragonal trisoctahedron; -- so called as being the form of the mineral leucite.
leucophane ::: n. --> A mineral of a greenish yellow color; it is a silicate of glucina, lime, and soda with fluorine. Called also leucophanite.
leucopyrite ::: n. --> A mineral of a color between white and steel-gray, with a metallic luster, and consisting chiefly of arsenic and iron.
leucoxene ::: n. --> A nearly opaque white mineral, in part identical with titanite, observed in some igneous rocks as the result of the alteration of titanic iron.
levynite ::: n. --> A whitish, reddish, or yellowish, transparent or translucent mineral, allied to chabazite.
libethenite ::: n. --> A mineral of an olive-green color, commonly in orthorhombic crystals. It is a hydrous phosphate of copper.
lignite ::: n. --> Mineral coal retaining the texture of the wood from which it was formed, and burning with an empyreumatic odor. It is of more recent origin than the anthracite and bituminous coal of the proper coal series. Called also brown coal, wood coal.
linnaeite ::: n. --> A mineral of pale steel-gray color and metallic luster, occurring in isometric crystals, and also massive. It is a sulphide of cobalt containing some nickel or copper.
lithium ::: n. --> A metallic element of the alkaline group, occurring in several minerals, as petalite, spodumene, lepidolite, triphylite, etc., and otherwise widely disseminated, though in small quantities.
lithogenesy ::: n. --> The doctrine or science of the origin of the minerals composing the globe.
lithological ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to the character of a rock, as derived from the nature and mode of aggregation of its mineral contents.
Of or pertaining to lithology.
lithology ::: n. --> The science which treats of rocks, as regards their mineral constitution and classification, and their mode of occurrence in nature.
A treatise on stones found in the body.
locality ::: n. --> The state, or condition, of belonging to a definite place, or of being contained within definite limits.
Position; situation; a place; a spot; esp., a geographical place or situation, as of a mineral or plant.
Limitation to a county, district, or place; as, locality of trial.
The perceptive faculty concerned with the ability to remember the relative positions of places.
ludlamite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in small, green, transparent, monoclinic crystals. It is a hydrous phosphate of iron.
lustre ::: n. --> Brilliancy; splendor; brightness; glitter.
Renown; splendor; distinction; glory.
A candlestick, chandelier, girandole, or the like, generally of an ornamental character.
The appearance of the surface of a mineral as affected by, or dependent upon, peculiarities of its reflecting qualities.
A substance which imparts luster to a surface, as plumbago and some of the glazes.
magma ::: n. --> Any crude mixture of mineral or organic matters in the state of a thin paste.
A thick residuum obtained from certain substances after the fluid parts are expressed from them; the grounds which remain after treating a substance with any menstruum, as water or alcohol.
A salve or confection of thick consistency.
The molten matter within the earth, the source of the material of lava flows, dikes of eruptive rocks, etc.
manganese ::: n. --> An element obtained by reduction of its oxide, as a hard, grayish white metal, fusible with difficulty, but easily oxidized. Its ores occur abundantly in nature as the minerals pyrolusite, manganite, etc. Symbol Mn. Atomic weight 54.8.
margarite ::: n. --> A pearl.
A mineral related to the micas, but low in silica and yielding brittle folia with pearly luster.
massive ::: a. --> Forming, or consisting of, a large mass; compacted; weighty; heavy; massy.
In mass; not necessarily without a crystalline structure, but having no regular form; as, a mineral occurs massive.
matrix ::: n. --> The womb.
Hence, that which gives form or origin to anything
The cavity in which anything is formed, and which gives it shape; a die; a mold, as for the face of a type.
The earthy or stony substance in which metallic ores or crystallized minerals are found; the gangue.
The five simple colors, black, white, blue, red, and yellow, of which all the rest are composed.
• MEDICINE. ::: Medical Science has been more a curse to rnankind than u blessing. It has weakened the natural health of man and multiplied individual diseases ; it has implanted fear and dependence in the mind and body ; it has taught our health to repose not on natural soundness but a rickety and distasteful witch compact from the mineral and vegetable kingdom.
meerschaum ::: n. --> A fine white claylike mineral, soft, and light enough when in dry masses to float in water. It is a hydrous silicate of magnesia, and is obtained chiefly in Asia Minor. It is manufacturd into tobacco pipes, cigar holders, etc. Also called sepiolite.
A tobacco pipe made of this mineral.
melanochroite ::: n. --> A mineral of a red, or brownish or yellowish red color. It is a chromate of lead; -- called also phoenicocroite.
melilite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in small yellow crystals, found in the lavas (melilite basalt) of Vesuvius, and elsewhere.
mellite ::: n. --> A mineral of a honey color, found in brown coal, and partly the result of vegetable decomposition; honeystone. It is a mellitate of alumina.
mellitic ::: a. --> Containing saccharine matter; marked by saccharine secretions; as, mellitic diabetes.
Pertaining to, or derived from, the mineral mellite.
menaccanite ::: n. --> An iron-black or steel-gray mineral, consisting chiefly of the oxides of iron and titanium. It is commonly massive, but occurs also in rhombohedral crystals. Called also titanic iron ore, and ilmenite.
mercurification ::: n. --> The process or operation of obtaining the mercury, in its fluid form, from mercuric minerals.
The act or process of compounding, or the state of being compounded, with mercury.
mercurify ::: v. t. --> To obtain mercury from, as mercuric minerals, which may be done by any application of intense heat that expels the mercury in fumes, which are afterward condensed.
To combine or mingle mercury with; to impregnate with mercury; to mercurialize.
mesolite ::: n. --> A zeolitic mineral, grayish white or yellowish, occuring in delicate groups of crystals, also fibrous massive. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina, lime, and soda.
metamorphic ::: a. --> Subject to change; changeable; variable.
Causing a change of structure.
Pertaining to, produced by, or exhibiting, certain changes which minerals or rocks may have undergone since their original deposition; -- especially applied to the recrystallization which sedimentary rocks have undergone through the influence of heat and pressure, after which they are called metamorphic rocks.
metasomatism ::: n. --> An alteration in a mineral or rock mass when involving a chemical change of the substance, as of chrysolite to serpentine; -- opposed to ordinary metamorphism, as implying simply a recrystallization.
miargyrite ::: n. --> A mineral of an iron-black color, and very sectile, consisting principally of sulphur, antimony, and silver.
mica ::: n. --> The name of a group of minerals characterized by highly perfect cleavage, so that they readily separate into very thin leaves, more or less elastic. They differ widely in composition, and vary in color from pale brown or yellow to green or black. The transparent forms are used in lanterns, the doors of stoves, etc., being popularly called isinglass. Formerly called also cat-silver, and glimmer.
microcline ::: n. --> A mineral of the feldspar group, like orthoclase or common feldspar in composition, but triclinic in form.
microlite ::: n. --> A rare mineral of resinous luster and high specific gravity. It is a tantalate of calcium, and occurs in octahedral crystals usually very minute.
A minute inclosed crystal, often observed when minerals or rocks are examined in thin sections under the microscope.
mimetite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in pale yellow or brownish hexagonal crystals. It is an arseniate of lead.
mine ::: n. 1. An excavation in the earth from which ore or minerals can be extracted. v. 2. To remove something from its source without attempting to replenish it. (All other references are to mine as: belonging to me.)
molybdenite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in soft, lead-gray, foliated masses or scales, resembling graphite; sulphide of molybdenum.
molybdenum ::: n. --> A rare element of the chromium group, occurring in nature in the minerals molybdenite and wulfenite, and when reduced obtained as a hard, silver-white, difficulty fusible metal. Symbol Mo. Atomic weight 95.9.
monazite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring usually in small isolated crystals, -- a phosphate of the cerium metals.
nagyagite ::: n. --> A mineral of blackish lead-gray color and metallic luster, generally of a foliated massive structure; foliated tellurium. It is a telluride of lead and gold.
naphtha ::: n. --> The complex mixture of volatile, liquid, inflammable hydrocarbons, occurring naturally, and usually called crude petroleum, mineral oil, or rock oil. Specifically: That portion of the distillate obtained in the refinement of petroleum which is intermediate between the lighter gasoline and the heavier benzine, and has a specific gravity of about 0.7, -- used as a solvent for varnishes, as a carburetant, illuminant, etc.
One of several volatile inflammable liquids obtained by
necronite ::: n. --> Fetid feldspar, a mineral which, when struck, exhales a fetid odor.
nephelite ::: n. --> A mineral occuring at Vesuvius, in glassy agonal crystals; also elsewhere, in grayish or greenish masses having a greasy luster, as the variety elaeolite. It is a silicate of aluminia, soda, and potash.
nephrite ::: n. --> A hard compact mineral, of a dark green color, formerly worn as a remedy for diseases of the kidneys, whence its name; kidney stone; a kind of jade. See Jade.
neptunium ::: n. --> A new metallic element, of doubtful genuineness and uncertain indentification, said to exist in certain minerals, as columbite.
niccolite ::: n. --> A mineral of a copper-red color and metallic luster; an arsenide of nickel; -- called also coppernickel, kupfernickel.
nickel ::: n. --> A bright silver-white metallic element. It is of the iron group, and is hard, malleable, and ductile. It occurs combined with sulphur in millerite, with arsenic in the mineral niccolite, and with arsenic and sulphur in nickel glance. Symbol Ni. Atomic weight 58.6.
A small coin made of or containing nickel; esp., a five-cent piece.
nitratine ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in transparent crystals, usually of a white, sometimes of a reddish gray, or lemon-yellow, color; native sodium nitrate. It is used in making nitric acid and for manure. Called also soda niter.
nontronite ::: n. --> A greenish yellow or green mineral, consisting chiefly of the hydrous silicate of iron.
oil ::: n. --> Any one of a great variety of unctuous combustible substances, not miscible with water; as, olive oil, whale oil, rock oil, etc. They are of animal, vegetable, or mineral origin and of varied composition, and they are variously used for food, for solvents, for anointing, lubrication, illumination, etc. By extension, any substance of an oily consistency; as, oil of vitriol. ::: v. t.
okenite ::: n. --> A massive and fibrous mineral of a whitish color, chiefly hydrous silicate of lime.
olivenite ::: n. --> An olive-green mineral, a hydrous arseniate of copper; olive ore.
olivine ::: n. --> A common name of the yellowish green mineral chrysolite, esp. the variety found in eruptive rocks.
opalescence ::: n. --> A reflection of a milky or pearly light from the interior of a mineral, as in the moonstone; the state or quality of being opalescent.
opal ::: n. --> A mineral consisting, like quartz, of silica, but inferior to quartz in hardness and specific gravity.
orangite ::: --> An orange-yellow variety of the mineral thorite, found in Norway.
ore ::: a mineral or an aggregate of minerals from which a valuable constituent, especially a metal, can be profitably mined or extracted.
ore ::: n. --> Honor; grace; favor; mercy; clemency; happy augry.
The native form of a metal, whether free and uncombined, as gold, copper, etc., or combined, as iron, lead, etc. Usually the ores contain the metals combined with oxygen, sulphur, arsenic, etc. (called mineralizers).
A native metal or its compound with the rock in which it occurs, after it has been picked over to throw out what is worthless.
Metal; as, the liquid ore.
orpiment ::: n. --> Arsenic sesquisulphide, produced artificially as an amorphous lemonyellow powder, and occurring naturally as a yellow crystalline mineral; -- formerly called auripigment. It is used in king&
oryctognosy ::: n. --> Mineralogy.
oryctology ::: n. --> An old name for paleontology.
An old name for mineralogy and geology.
ossein ::: n. --> The organic basis of bone tissue; the residue after removal of the mineral matters from bone by dilute acid; in embryonic tissue, the substance in which the mineral salts are deposited to form bone; -- called also ostein. Chemically it is the same as collagen.
ossified ::: a. --> Changed to bone or something resembling bone; hardened by deposits of mineral matter of any kind; -- said of tissues. ::: imp. & p. p. --> of Ossify
ottrelite ::: n. --> A micaceous mineral occurring in small scales. It is characteristic of certain crystalline schists.
oxalite ::: n. --> A yellow mineral consisting of oxalate of iron.
ozocerite ::: n. --> A waxlike mineral resin; -- sometimes called native paraffin, and mineral wax.
paragenesis ::: n. --> The science which treats of minerals with special reference to their origin.
paramorphism ::: n. --> The change of one mineral species to another, so as to involve a change in physical characters without alteration of chemical composition.
pectolite ::: n. --> A whitish mineral occurring in radiated or fibrous crystalline masses. It is a hydrous silicate of lime and soda.
periclasite ::: n. --> A grayish or dark green mineral, consisting essentially of magnesia (magnesium oxide), occurring in granular forms or in isometric crystals.
petalite ::: n. --> A rare mineral, occurring crystallized and in cleavable masses, usually white, or nearly so, in color. It is a silicate of aluminia and lithia.
petroleum ::: n. --> Rock oil, mineral oil, or natural oil, a dark brown or greenish inflammable liquid, which, at certain points, exists in the upper strata of the earth, from whence it is pumped, or forced by pressure of the gas attending it. It consists of a complex mixture of various hydrocarbons, largely of the methane series, but may vary much in appearance, composition, and properties. It is refined by distillation, and the products include kerosene, benzine, gasoline, paraffin, etc.
petrology ::: n. --> The department of science which is concerned with the mineralogical and chemical composition of rocks, and with their classification: lithology.
A treatise on petrology.
phenacite ::: n. --> A glassy colorless mineral occurring in rhombohedral crystals, sometimes used as a gem. It is a silicate of glucina, and receives its name from its deceptive similarity to quartz.
philippium ::: n. --> A rare and doubtful metallic element said to have been discovered in the mineral samarskite.
phillipsite ::: n. --> A hydrous silicate of aluminia, lime, and soda, a zeolitic mineral commonly occurring in complex twin crystals, often cruciform in shape; -- called also christianite.
phosgenite ::: n. --> A rare mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals of a white, yellow, or grayish color and adamantine luster. It is a chlorocarbonate of lead.
phosphorus ::: n. --> The morning star; Phosphor.
A poisonous nonmetallic element of the nitrogen group, obtained as a white, or yellowish, translucent waxy substance, having a characteristic disagreeable smell. It is very active chemically, must be preserved under water, and unites with oxygen even at ordinary temperatures, giving a faint glow, -- whence its name. It always occurs compined, usually in phosphates, as in the mineral apatite, in bones, etc. It is used in the composition on the tips of friction matches, and
phyllite ::: n. --> A mineral related to ottrelite.
Clay slate; argillaceous schist.
pimelite ::: n. --> An apple-green mineral having a greasy feel. It is a hydrous silicate of nickel, magnesia, aluminia, and iron.
pinite ::: n. --> A compact granular cryptocrystalline mineral of a dull grayish or greenish white color. It is a hydrous alkaline silicate, and is derived from the alteration of other minerals, as iolite.
Any fossil wood which exhibits traces of having belonged to the Pine family.
A sweet white crystalline substance extracted from the gum of a species of pine (Pinus Lambertina). It is isomeric with, and resembles, quercite.
pitchblende ::: n. --> A pitch-black mineral consisting chiefly of the oxide of uranium; uraninite. See Uraninite.
placer ::: n. --> One who places or sets.
A deposit of earth, sand, or gravel, containing valuable mineral in particles, especially by the side of a river, or in the bed of a mountain torrent.
pollucite ::: n. --> A colorless transparent mineral, resembling quartz, occurring with castor or castorite on the island of Elba. It is a silicate of alumina and caesia. Called also pollux.
polyhalite ::: n. --> A mineral usually occurring in fibrous masses, of a brick-red color, being tinged with iron, and consisting chiefly of the sulphates of lime, magnesia, and soda.
potassium ::: n. --> An Alkali element, occurring abundantly but always combined, as in the chloride, sulphate, carbonate, or silicate, in the minerals sylvite, kainite, orthoclase, muscovite, etc. Atomic weight 39.0. Symbol K (Kalium).
prehnite ::: n. --> A pale green mineral occurring in crystalline aggregates having a botryoidal or mammillary structure, and rarely in distinct crystals. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime.
prospector ::: n. --> One who prospects; especially, one who explores a region for minerals and precious metals.
protogine ::: n. --> A kind of granite or gneiss containing a silvery talcose mineral.
pseudo-metallic ::: a. --> Falsely or imperfectly metallic; -- said of a kind of luster, as in minerals.
pyrite ::: n. --> A common mineral of a pale brass-yellow color and brilliant metallic luster, crystallizing in the isometric system; iron pyrites; iron disulphide.
pyrites ::: pl. --> of Pyrite ::: n. --> A name given to a number of metallic minerals, sulphides of iron, copper, cobalt, nickel, and tin, of a white or yellowish color.
rake ::: n. --> An implement consisting of a headpiece having teeth, and a long handle at right angles to it, -- used for collecting hay, or other light things which are spread over a large surface, or for breaking and smoothing the earth.
A toothed machine drawn by a horse, -- used for collecting hay or grain; a horserake.
A fissure or mineral vein traversing the strata vertically, or nearly so; -- called also rake-vein.
rake-vein ::: n. --> See Rake, a mineral vein.
realgar ::: n. --> Arsenic sulphide, a mineral of a brilliant red color; red orpiment. It is also an artificial product.
reniform ::: a. --> Having the form or shape of a kidney; as, a reniform mineral; a reniform leaf.
retinite ::: n. --> An inflammable mineral resin, usually of a yellowish brown color, found in roundish masses, sometimes with coal.
rhodochrosite ::: n. --> Manganese carbonate, a rose-red mineral sometimes occuring crystallized, but generally massive with rhombohedral cleavage like calcite; -- called also dialogite.
rhodonite ::: n. --> Manganese spar, or silicate of manganese, a mineral occuring crystallised and in rose-red masses. It is often used as an ornamental stone.
ripidolite ::: n. --> A translucent mineral of a green color and micaceous structure, belonging to the chlorite group; a hydrous silicate of alumina, magnesia, and iron; -- called also clinochlore.
rock ::: 1. Relatively hard, naturally formed mineral or petrified matter; stone. 2. A boulder or large stone. 3. One that is similar to or suggestive of a mass of stone in stability, firmness, or dependability. 4. Something resembling or suggesting a rock. rocks, rock-doors, rock-edicts, rock-gate"s, rock-hewn, rock-temple"s, pillar-rocks.
romeite ::: n. --> A mineral of a hyacinth or honey-yellow color, occuring in square octahedrons. It is an antimonate of calcium.
roscoelite ::: n. --> A green micaceous mineral occurring in minute scales. It is essentially a silicate of aluminia and potash containing vanadium.
ruiniform ::: a. --> Having the appearance of ruins, or of the ruins of houses; -- said of certain minerals.
rutile ::: n. --> A mineral usually of a reddish brown color, and brilliant metallic adamantine luster, occurring in tetragonal crystals. In composition it is titanium dioxide, like octahedrite and brookite.
sagenitic ::: a. --> Resembling sagenite; -- applied to quartz when containing acicular crystals of other minerals, most commonly rutile, also tourmaline, actinolite, and the like.
salt ::: --> Sulphate of magnesia having cathartic qualities; -- originally prepared by boiling down the mineral waters at Epsom, England, -- whence the name; afterwards prepared from sea water; but now from certain minerals, as from siliceous hydrate of magnesia. ::: n. --> The chloride of sodium, a substance used for seasoning food,
samarskite ::: a. --> A rare mineral having a velvet-black color and submetallic luster. It is a niobate of uranium, iron, and the yttrium and cerium metals.
sandarac ::: n. --> Realgar; red sulphide of arsenic.
A white or yellow resin obtained from a Barbary tree (Callitris quadrivalvis or Thuya articulata), and pulverized for pounce; -- probably so called from a resemblance to the mineral.
saussurite ::: n. --> A tough, compact mineral, of a white, greenish, or grayish color. It is near zoisite in composition, and in part, at least, has been produced by the alteration of feldspar.
scandium ::: n. --> A rare metallic element of the boron group, whose existence was predicted under the provisional name ekaboron by means of the periodic law, and subsequently discovered by spectrum analysis in certain rare Scandinavian minerals (euxenite and gadolinite). It has not yet been isolated. Symbol Sc. Atomic weight 44.
scapolite ::: n. --> A grayish white mineral occuring in tetragonal crystals and in cleavable masses. It is essentially a silicate of alumina and soda.
scheelite ::: n. --> Calcium tungstate, a mineral of a white or pale yellowish color and of the tetragonal system of crystallization.
schilerization ::: n. --> The act or process of producing schiller in a mineral mass.
schiller ::: n. --> The peculiar bronzelike luster observed in certain minerals, as hypersthene, schiller spar, etc. It is due to the presence of minute inclusions in parallel position, and is sometimes of secondary origin.
schreibersite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in steel-gray flexible folia. It contains iron, nickel, and phosphorus, and is found only in meteoric iron.
sclerometer ::: n. --> An instrument for determining with accuracy the degree of hardness of a mineral.
scolecite ::: n. --> A zeolitic mineral occuring in delicate radiating groups of white crystals. It is a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime. Called also lime mesotype.
scorodite ::: n. --> A leek-green or brownish mineral occurring in orthorhombic crystals. It is a hydrous arseniate of iron.
sea coal ::: --> Coal brought by sea; -- a name by which mineral coal was formerly designated in the south of England, in distinction from charcoal, which was brought by land.
sectile ::: a. --> Capable of being cut; specifically (Min.), capable of being severed by the knife with a smooth cut; -- said of minerals.
selters water ::: --> A mineral water from Sellers, in the district of Nassan, Germany, containing much free carbonic acid.
septarium ::: n. --> A flattened concretionary nodule, usually of limestone, intersected within by cracks which are often filled with calcite, barite, or other minerals.
serpentine ::: a. --> Resembling a serpent; having the shape or qualities of a serpent; subtle; winding or turning one way and the other, like a moving serpent; anfractuous; meandering; sinuous; zigzag; as, serpentine braid. ::: n. --> A mineral or rock consisting chiefly of the hydrous
silicon ::: n. --> A nonmetalic element analogous to carbon. It always occurs combined in nature, and is artificially obtained in the free state, usually as a dark brown amorphous powder, or as a dark crystalline substance with a meetallic luster. Its oxide is silica, or common quartz, and in this form, or as silicates, it is, next to oxygen, the most abundant element of the earth&
silver ::: n. --> A soft white metallic element, sonorous, ductile, very malleable, and capable of a high degree of polish. It is found native, and also combined with sulphur, arsenic, antimony, chlorine, etc., in the minerals argentite, proustite, pyrargyrite, ceragyrite, etc. Silver is one of the "noble" metals, so-called, not being easily oxidized, and is used for coin, jewelry, plate, and a great variety of articles. Symbol Ag (Argentum). Atomic weight 107.7. Specific gravity 10.5.
Coin made of silver; silver money.
sinter ::: n. --> Dross, as of iron; the scale which files from iron when hammered; -- applied as a name to various minerals.
skip ::: n. --> A basket. See Skep.
A basket on wheels, used in cotton factories.
An iron bucket, which slides between guides, for hoisting mineral and rock.
A charge of sirup in the pans.
A beehive; a skep.
A light leap or bound.
The act of passing over an interval from one thing to
skutterudite ::: n. --> A mineral of a bright metallic luster and tin-white to pale lead-gray color. It consists of arsenic and cobalt.
smaltite ::: n. --> A tin-white or gray mineral of metallic luster. It is an arsenide of cobalt, nickel, and iron. Called also speiskobalt.
sodalite ::: n. --> A mineral of a white to blue or gray color, occuring commonly in dodecahedrons, also massive. It is a silicate of alumina and soda with some chlorine.
spa ::: n. --> A spring or mineral water; -- so called from a place of this name in Belgium.
spar ::: n. --> An old name for a nonmetallic mineral, usually cleavable and somewhat lustrous; as, calc spar, or calcite, fluor spar, etc. It was especially used in the case of the gangue minerals of a metalliferous vein.
A contest at sparring or boxing.
A movement of offense or defense in boxing. ::: v. t.
sphene ::: n. --> A mineral found usually in thin, wedge-shaped crystals of a yellow or green to black color. It is a silicate of titanium and calcium; titanite.
spinelle ::: n. --> A mineral occuring in octahedrons of great hardness and various colors, as red, green, blue, brown, and black, the red variety being the gem spinel ruby. It consist essentially of alumina and magnesia, but commonly contains iron and sometimes also chromium.
splintery ::: a. --> Consisting of splinters; resembling splinters; as, the splintery fracture of a mineral.
spodumene ::: n. --> A mineral of a white to yellowish, purplish, or emerald-green color, occuring in prismatic crystals, often of great size. It is a silicate of aluminia and lithia. See Hiddenite.
squat ::: n. --> The angel fish (Squatina angelus).
The posture of one that sits on his heels or hams, or close to the ground.
A sudden or crushing fall.
A small vein of ore.
A mineral consisting of tin ore and spar. ::: v. t.
stalactite ::: n. --> A pendent cone or cylinder of calcium carbonate resembling an icicle in form and mode of attachment. Stalactites are found depending from the roof or sides of caverns, and are produced by deposition from waters which have percolated through, and partially dissolved, the overlying limestone rocks.
In an extended sense, any mineral or rock of similar form and origin; as, a stalactite of lava.
stannite ::: n. --> A mineral of a steel-gray or iron-black color; tin pyrites. It is a sulphide of tin, copper, and iron.
staurolite ::: n. --> A mineral of a brown to black color occurring in prismatic crystals, often twinned so as to form groups resembling a cross. It is a silicate of aluminia and iron, and is generally found imbedded in mica schist. Called also granatite, and grenatite.
stibnite ::: n. --> A mineral of a lead-gray color and brilliant metallic luster, occurring in prismatic crystals; sulphide of antimony; -- called also antimony glance, and gray antimony.
stilbite ::: n. --> A common mineral of the zeolite family, a hydrous silicate of alumina and lime, usually occurring in sheaflike aggregations of crystals, also in radiated masses. It is of a white or yellowish color, with pearly luster on the cleavage surface. Called also desmine.
stilpnomelane ::: n. --> A black or greenish black mineral occurring in foliated flates, also in velvety bronze-colored incrustations. It is a hydrous silicate of iron and alumina.
stone ::: n. --> Concreted earthy or mineral matter; also, any particular mass of such matter; as, a house built of stone; the boy threw a stone; pebbles are rounded stones.
A precious stone; a gem.
Something made of stone. Specifically: -
The glass of a mirror; a mirror.
A monument to the dead; a gravestone.
A calculous concretion, especially one in the kidneys or
stromeyerite ::: n. --> A steel-gray mineral of metallic luster. It is a sulphide of silver and copper.
strontianite ::: n. --> Strontium carbonate, a mineral of a white, greenish, or yellowish color, usually occurring in fibrous massive forms, but sometimes in prismatic crystals.
strontium ::: n. --> A metallic element of the calcium group, always naturally occurring combined, as in the minerals strontianite, celestite, etc. It is isolated as a yellowish metal, somewhat malleable but harder than calcium. It is chiefly employed (as in the nitrate) to color pyrotechnic flames red. Symbol Sr. Atomic weight 87.3.
A radioactive isotope of strontium produced by certain nuclear reactions, and constituting one of the prominent harmful components of radioactive fallout from nuclear explosions; also called
structure ::: n. --> The act of building; the practice of erecting buildings; construction.
Manner of building; form; make; construction.
Arrangement of parts, of organs, or of constituent particles, in a substance or body; as, the structure of a rock or a mineral; the structure of a sentence.
Manner of organization; the arrangement of the different tissues or parts of animal and vegetable organisms; as, organic
struvite ::: n. --> A crystalline mineral found in guano. It is a hydrous phosphate of magnesia and ammonia.
talc ::: n. --> A soft mineral of a soapy feel and a greenish, whitish, or grayish color, usually occurring in foliated masses. It is hydrous silicate of magnesia. Steatite, or soapstone, is a compact granular variety.
tantalite ::: n. --> A heavy mineral of an iron-black color and submetallic luster. It is essentially a tantalate of iron.
tantalum ::: n. --> A rare nonmetallic element found in certain minerals, as tantalite, samarskite, and fergusonite, and isolated as a dark powder which becomes steel-gray by burnishing. Symbol Ta. Atomic weight 182.0. Formerly called also tantalium.
tellurium ::: n. --> A rare nonmetallic element, analogous to sulphur and selenium, occasionally found native as a substance of a silver-white metallic luster, but usually combined with metals, as with gold and silver in the mineral sylvanite, with mercury in Coloradoite, etc. Symbol Te. Atomic weight 125.2.
tennantite ::: n. --> A blackish lead-gray mineral, closely related to tetrahedrite. It is essentially a sulphide of arsenic and copper.
terbium ::: n. --> A rare metallic element, of uncertain identification, supposed to exist in certain minerals, as gadolinite and samarskite, with other rare ytterbium earth. Symbol Tr or Tb. Atomic weight 150.
thallium ::: n. --> A rare metallic element of the aluminium group found in some minerals, as certain pyrites, and also in the lead-chamber deposit in the manufacture of sulphuric acid. It is isolated as a heavy, soft, bluish white metal, easily oxidized in moist air, but preserved by keeping under water. Symbol Tl. Atomic weight 203.7.
thenardite ::: n. --> Anhydrous sodium sulphate, a mineral of a white or brown color and vitreous luster.
thomsonite ::: n. --> A zeolitic mineral, occurring generally in masses of a radiated structure. It is a hydrous silicate of aluminia, lime, and soda. Called also mesole, and comptonite.
thorite ::: n. --> A mineral of a brown to black color, or, as in the variety orangite, orange-yellow. It is essentially a silicate of thorium.
thorium ::: n. --> A metallic element found in certain rare minerals, as thorite, pyrochlore, monazite, etc., and isolated as an infusible gray metallic powder which burns in the air and forms thoria; -- formerly called also thorinum. Symbol Th. Atomic weight 232.0.
thulium ::: n. --> A rare metallic element of uncertain properties and identity, said to have been found in the mineral gadolinite.
thuringite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring as an aggregation of minute scales having an olive-green color and pearly luster. It is a hydrous silicate of aluminia and iron.
tiger-eye ::: n. --> A siliceous stone of a yellow color and chatoyant luster, obtained in South Africa and much used for ornament. It is an altered form of the mineral crocidolite. See Crocidolite.
tin ::: n. --> An elementary substance found as an oxide in the mineral cassiterite, and reduced as a soft white crystalline metal, malleable at ordinary temperatures, but brittle when heated. It is not easily oxidized in the air, and is used chiefly to coat iron to protect it from rusting, in the form of tin foil with mercury to form the reflective surface of mirrors, and in solder, bronze, speculum metal, and other alloys. Its compounds are designated as stannous, or stannic. Symbol Sn (Stannum). Atomic weight 117.4.
titanitic ::: a. --> Pertaining to, or containing, titanium; as, a titanitic mineral.
titanium ::: n. --> An elementary substance found combined in the minerals manaccanite, rutile, sphene, etc., and isolated as an infusible iron-gray amorphous powder, having a metallic luster. It burns when heated in the air. Symbol Ti. Atomic weight 48.1.
topaz ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in rhombic prisms, generally yellowish and pellucid, also colorless, and of greenesh, bluish, or brownish shades. It sometimes occurs massive and opaque. It is a fluosilicate of alumina, and is used as a gem.
Either one of two species of large, brilliantly colored humming birds of the Topaza, of South America and the West Indies.
tophus ::: n. --> One of the mineral concretions about the joints, and in other situations, occurring chiefly in gouty persons. They consist usually of urate of sodium; when occurring in the internal organs they are also composed of phosphate of calcium.
Calcareous tufa.
torbernite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in emerald-green tabular crystals having a micaceous structure. It is a hydrous phosphate of uranium and copper. Called also copper uranite, and chalcolite.
tourmaline ::: n. --> A mineral occurring usually in three-sided or six-sided prisms terminated by rhombohedral or scalenohedral planes. Black tourmaline (schorl) is the most common variety, but there are also other varieties, as the blue (indicolite), red (rubellite), also green, brown, and white. The red and green varieties when transparent are valued as jewels.
triphylite ::: n. --> A mineral of a grayish-green or bluish color, consisting of the phosphates of iron, manganese, and lithia.
triplite ::: n. --> A mineral of a dark brown color, generally with a fibrous, massive structure. It is a fluophosphate of iron and manganese.
tripoline ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to Tripoli or its inhabitants; Tripolitan.
Of or pertaining to tripoli, the mineral.
tungsten ::: n. --> A rare element of the chromium group found in certain minerals, as wolfram and scheelite, and isolated as a heavy steel-gray metal which is very hard and infusible. It has both acid and basic properties. When alloyed in small quantities with steel, it greatly increases its hardness. Symbol W (Wolframium). Atomic weight, 183.6. Specific gravity, 18.
Scheelite, or calcium tungstate.
tungstite ::: n. --> The oxide of tungsten, a yellow mineral occurring in a pulverulent form. It is often associated with wolfram.
turpeth ::: n. --> The root of Ipom/a Turpethum, a plant of Ceylon, Malabar, and Australia, formerly used in medicine as a purgative; -- sometimes called vegetable turpeth.
A heavy yellow powder, Hg3O2SO4, which consists of a basic mercuric sulphate; -- called also turpeth mineral.
turquoise ::: n. --> Alt. of Turquois ::: a. --> Having a fine light blue color, like that of choice mineral turquoise.
tyrolite ::: n. --> A translucent mineral of a green color and pearly or vitreous luster. It is a hydrous arseniate of copper.
ulexite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in white rounded crystalline masses. It is a hydrous borate of lime and soda.
ullmannite ::: n. --> A brittle mineral of a steel-gray color and metallic luster, containing antimony, arsenic, sulphur, and nickel.
unctuous ::: a. --> Of the nature or quality of an unguent or ointment; fatty; oily; greasy.
Having a smooth, greasy feel, as certain minerals.
Bland; suave; also, tender; fervid; as, an unctuous speech; sometimes, insincerely suave or fervid.
uraninite ::: n. --> A mineral consisting chiefly of uranium oxide with some lead, thorium, etc., occurring in black octahedrons, also in masses with a pitchlike luster; pitchblende.
uranium ::: n. --> An element of the chromium group, found in certain rare minerals, as pitchblende, uranite, etc., and reduced as a heavy, hard, nickel-white metal which is quite permanent. Its yellow oxide is used to impart to glass a delicate greenish-yellow tint which is accompanied by a strong fluorescence, and its black oxide is used as a pigment in porcelain painting. Symbol U. Atomic weight 239.
vanadinite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in yellowish, and ruby-red hexagonal crystals. It consist of lead vanadate with a small proportion of lead chloride.
vanadium ::: n. --> A rare element of the nitrogen-phosphorus group, found combined, in vanadates, in certain minerals, and reduced as an infusible, grayish-white metallic powder. It is intermediate between the metals and the non-metals, having both basic and acid properties. Symbol V (or Vd, rarely). Atomic weight 51.2.
variscite ::: n. --> An apple-green mineral occurring in reniform masses. It is a hydrous phosphate of alumina.
vat ::: n. --> A large vessel, cistern, or tub, especially one used for holding in an immature state, chemical preparations for dyeing, or for tanning, or for tanning leather, or the like.
A measure for liquids, and also a dry measure; especially, a liquid measure in Belgium and Holland, corresponding to the hectoliter of the metric system, which contains 22.01 imperial gallons, or 26.4 standard gallons in the United States.
A wooden tub for washing ores and mineral substances in.
veinstone ::: n. --> The nonmetalliferous mineral or rock material which accompanies the ores in a vein, as quartz, calcite, barite, fluor spar, etc.; -- called also veinstuff.
verditer ::: n. --> Verdigris.
Either one of two pigments (called blue verditer, and green verditer) which are made by treating copper nitrate with calcium carbonate (in the form of lime, whiting, chalk, etc.) They consist of hydrated copper carbonates analogous to the minerals azurite and malachite.
vermiculite ::: n. --> A group of minerals having, a micaceous structure. They are hydrous silicates, derived generally from the alteration of some kind of mica. So called because the scales, when heated, open out into wormlike forms.
vermilion ::: n. --> A bright red pigment consisting of mercuric sulphide, obtained either from the mineral cinnabar or artificially. It has a fine red color, and is much used in coloring sealing wax, in printing, etc.
Hence, a red color like the pigment; a lively and brilliant red; as, cheeks of vermilion. ::: v. t.
vesuvianite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals, and also massive, of a brown to green color, rarely sulphur yellow and blue. It is a silicate of alumina and lime with some iron magnesia, and is common at Vesuvius. Also called idocrase.
vichy water ::: --> A mineral water found at Vichy, France. It is essentially an effervescent solution of sodium, calcium, and magnetism carbonates, with sodium and potassium chlorides; also, by extension, any artificial or natural water resembling in composition the Vichy water proper. Called also, colloquially, Vichy.
viridite ::: n. --> A greenish chloritic mineral common in certain igneous rocks, as diabase, as a result of alternation.
volborthite ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in small six-sided tabular crystals of a green or yellow color. It is a hydrous vanadate of copper and lime.
warwickite ::: n. --> A dark brown or black mineral, occurring in prismatic crystals imbedded in limestone near Warwick, New York. It consists of the borate and titanate of magnesia and iron.
wernerian ::: a. --> Of or pertaining to A. G. Werner, The German mineralogist and geologist, who classified minerals according to their external characters, and advocated the theory that the strata of the earth&
xylanthrax ::: n. --> Wood coal, or charcoal; -- so called in distinction from mineral coal.
yttriferous ::: a. --> Bearing or containing yttrium or the allied elements; as, gadolinite is one of the yttriferous minerals.
yttrium ::: n. --> A rare metallic element of the boron-aluminium group, found in gadolinite and other rare minerals, and extracted as a dark gray powder. Symbol Y. Atomic weight, 89.
yttro-cerite ::: n. --> A mineral of a violet-blue color, inclining to gray and white. It is a hydrous fluoride of cerium, yttrium, and calcium.
zeolite ::: n. --> A term now used to designate any one of a family of minerals, hydrous silicates of alumina, with lime, soda, potash, or rarely baryta. Here are included natrolite, stilbite, analcime, chabazite, thomsonite, heulandite, and others. These species occur of secondary origin in the cavities of amygdaloid, basalt, and lava, also, less frequently, in granite and gneiss. So called because many of these species intumesce before the blowpipe.
zietrisikite ::: n. --> A mineral wax, vert similar to ozocerite. It is found at Zietrisika, Moldavia, whence its name.
zincite ::: n. --> Native zinc oxide; a brittle, translucent mineral, of an orange-red color; -- called also red zinc ore, and red oxide of zinc.
zinc ::: n. --> An abundant element of the magnesium-cadmium group, extracted principally from the minerals zinc blende, smithsonite, calamine, and franklinite, as an easily fusible bluish white metal, which is malleable, especially when heated. It is not easily oxidized in moist air, and hence is used for sheeting, coating galvanized iron, etc. It is used in making brass, britannia, and other alloys, and is also largely consumed in electric batteries. Symbol Zn. Atomic weight 64.9.
zinkenite ::: n. --> A steel-gray metallic mineral, a sulphide of antimony and lead.
zirconium ::: n. --> A rare element of the carbon-silicon group, intermediate between the metals and nonmetals, obtained from the mineral zircon as a dark sooty powder, or as a gray metallic crystalline substance. Symbol Zr. Atomic weight, 90.4.
zircon ::: n. --> A mineral occurring in tetragonal crystals, usually of a brown or gray color. It consists of silica and zirconia. A red variety, used as a gem, is called hyacinth. Colorless, pale-yellow or smoky-brown varieties from Ceylon are called jargon.
zoisite ::: n. --> A grayish or whitish mineral occurring in orthorhombic, prismatic crystals, also in columnar masses. It is a silicate of alumina and lime, and is allied to epidote.
KEYS (10k)
1 Taisen Deshimaru
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NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
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2 Max Heindel
2 Mary Roach
1:The more evolved you become, the more compassionate you become, the more you show loving kindness to everything, to the mineral kingdom, to the vegetable kingdom, to the animal kingdom, and to the human kingdom. ~ Robert Adams, #KEYS
2:If you have a glass full of liquid you can discourse forever on its qualities, discuss whether it is cold, warm, whether it is really and truly composed of H-2-O, or even mineral water, or saki. Meditation is Drinking it! ~ Taisen Deshimaru, #KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
1:Now sir, said the bulldog in his business-like way. & 2:I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as an animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? ~ rumi, @wisdomtrove 3:Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields? ~ henry-ford, @wisdomtrove 4:The occultists tell us that even in the mineral world there is the first faint indication of life, and some of the more advanced scientists are beginning to recognize that matter is not entirely dead— that there is nothing absolutely dead in Nature— that intelligence is merely a matter of degree— that the mineral. ~ william-walker-atkinson, @wisdomtrove 5:& *** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:It was the Matron of the Mineral. ~ Chris Dietzel, #NFDB
2:Harm no person, animal, plant or mineral. ~ Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
3:Normally, you would not call ice a mineral. ~ Ira Flatow, #NFDB
4:El agua mineral sabe a pie dormido ~ Ram n G mez de la Serna, #NFDB
5:You can't ride the Tour de France on mineral water. ~ Jacques Anquetil, #NFDB
6:Do not damage any human being , animal , vegetable or mineral. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
7:I can beat anyone, either male, female, animal, vegitable, or mineral. ~ Jim Cornette, #NFDB
8:Everything that lives makes noise. What an argument for the mineral kingdom! ~ Emil M Cioran, #NFDB
9:You can trace every sickness, every disease and every ailment to a mineral deficiency. ~ Linus Pauling, #NFDB
10:ADAMANT, n. A mineral frequently found beneath a corset. Soluble in solicitate of gold. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
11:Why does mineral water that 'has trickled through mountains for centuries' have a 'use by' date? ~ Peter Kay, #NFDB
12:The Sushi Warehouse in Roissy 2E offered an exceptional range of Norwegian mineral waters. ~ Michel Houellebecq, #NFDB
13:RADIUM, n. A mineral that gives off heat and stimulates the organ that a scientist is a fool with. ~ Ambrose Bierce, #NFDB
14:Leave the eggs to bathe for 15 minutes in the hot water like a sexy Swedish chick in a natural mineral sauna. ~ Coolio, #NFDB
15:They suggested E-meters, Gestalt, eating only high-mineral foods that had been planted during a full moon. ~ Emma Cline, #NFDB
16:Every ailment, every sickness and every disease can be traced back to An organic trace mineral deficiency ~ Linus Pauling, #NFDB
17:Provided one has the correct level of vitamin, mineral and nutritional input, the body can overcome disease. ~ Linus Pauling, #NFDB
18:Minutes, foolish mortal, are the base mineral
that you must not let go of without extracting their gold! ~ Charles Baudelaire,#NFDB
19:Now sir, said the bulldog in his business-like way. 'Are you a animal, vegetable, or mineral?' - The Magician's Nephew ~ C S Lewis, #NFDB
20:There is absolutely no nutrient, no protein, no vitamin, no mineral that can't be obtained from plant-based foods. ~ Michael Klaper, #NFDB
21:Now sir, said the bulldog in his business-like way. 'Are you a animal, vegetable, or mineral?'
- The Magician's Nephew ~ C S Lewis,#NFDB
22:And I will never, ever respond to anybody - man, woman, vegetable, or mineral - who tells me to keep my mouth shut. ~ Janice Dickinson, #NFDB
23:Globalization has made copper and other minerals more valuable, and Ghana and Kenya have recently discovered mineral resources. ~ Bill Gates, #NFDB
24:I'm really low maintenance for a girl. I pretty much shower, attempt to fix my hair, throw on some mineral make up, and go. ~ Johanna Braddy, #NFDB
25:That is the artist's job: take mineral rock from dark silent earth, transform it into shining light-reflecting form from sky. ~ Philip K Dick, #NFDB
26:tall evergreens whose long and lush boughs were coated with mineral dust, like elegant ladies wearing too much face powder. ~ Sibella Giorello, #NFDB
27:Until I met Timmy I'd always thought coffee was a mineral that occurred in nature as tiny crystals and was mined like coal. ~ Richard Stevenson, #NFDB
28:Poor fool, ruining his life for a piece of cloth smeared with mineral paste, for a fake, I had to tell myself, a mere curiosity. ~ Susan Vreeland, #NFDB
29:The waste from power plants is essentially what is left over when you burn coal. And as we all know, coal is a relatively dirty mineral. ~ Charles Duhigg, #NFDB
30:Some people just wanted to blow it all to hell, animal, vegetable and mineral. They wanted a Vietnam they could fit into their car ashtrays. ~ Michael Herr, #NFDB
31:I accept the Organic Trinity of Mineral, Vegetable, and Animal with as much authority as I accept the Holy Trinity. Both are sacred. ~ Terry Tempest Williams, #NFDB
32:There is no generation from an egg in the Mineral Kingdom. Hence no vascular circulation of the humours as in the remaining Natural Kingdoms. ~ Carl Linnaeus, #NFDB
33:In his bones he manifests almost in the form of mineral life, in fact, in his bones, body and blood mineral substances actually exist. ~ William Walker Atkinson, #NFDB
34:I died as a mineral and became a plant, I died as a plant and rose to animal, I died as an animal and I was Man. Why should I fear? When was I less by dying? ~ Rumi, #NFDB
35:What is important is the moment of opening a life and feeling it touch--with an electric hiss and cry--this speckled mineral sphere, our present world. ~ Annie Dillard, #NFDB
36:Unshed tears leave a deposit on your heart. Eventually they form a crust around it and paralyze it, the way mineral deposits paralyze a washing machine. ~ Susanna Tamaro, #NFDB
37:A sense of the Finn’s presence surrounded him, smell of Cuban cigarettes, smoke locked in musty tweed, old machines given up to the mineral rituals of rust. ~ William Gibson, #NFDB
38:I died from a mineral and plant became, Died from the plant, took a sentient frame; Died from the beast, donned a human dress - When by my dying did I ever grow less. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
39:Mountains have long-lost kinfolk on the other side of the Atlantic. The bloodline that marks that kinship is a vein of a green mineral called serpentine ... ~ Sharyn McCrumb, #NFDB
40:Fibers in a variety of colors protrude out of my skin like mushrooms after a rainstorm. They cannot be forensically identified as animal, vegetable or mineral. ~ Joni Mitchell, #NFDB
41:Gems, in fact, are a species of mineral flowers; they are the blossoms of the dark, hard mine; and what they want in perfume, they make up in durability. ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe, #NFDB
42:The offshore ocean area under U.S. jurisdiction is larger than our land mass, and teems with plant and animal life, mineral resources, commerce, trade, and energy sources. ~ Tom Allen, #NFDB
43:He also said that this was not just a human gift, that everything on the face of the earth had a soul, whether mineral, vegetable, or animal - or even just a simple thought. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
44:mouth. Her mascara and eye shadow still looked okay at least. No need to add more, she decided. And thankfully, the mineral powder she’d used to seal her foundation seemed ~ Donna McDonald, #NFDB
45:I am almost inclined to coin a word and call the appearance fluorescence, from fluor-spar, as the analogous term opalescence is derived from the name of a mineral. ~ Sir George Stokes 1st Baronet, #NFDB
46:One can descend by imperceptible degree from the most perfect creature to the most shapeless matter, from the best-organised animal to the roughest mineral. ~ Georges Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon, #NFDB
47:Natural bodies are divided into three kingdomes of nature: viz. the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms. Minerals grow, Plants grow and live, Animals grow, live, and have feeling. ~ Carl Linnaeus, #NFDB
48:Millions of Americans take vitamins safely every day, including me. Vitamins and mineral supplements taken in recommended doses are safe. It's the designer supplements that are worrisome. ~ Dick Durbin, #NFDB
49:The fuel in the earth will be exhausted in a thousand or more years, and its mineral wealth, but man will find substitutes for these in the winds, the waves, the sun's heat, and so forth. ~ John Burroughs, #NFDB
50:When Kleiner showed me the sky-line of New York I told him that man is like the coral insect — designed to build vast, beautiful, mineral things for the moon to delight in after he is dead. ~ H P Lovecraft, #NFDB
51:The problem of estimating the mineral and activator contents, in other words the body-building and repairing qualities of the displacing foods used by the various primitive races, is similar in many ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
52:There would be no dressing up as a maid. No cyanide slipped into his crystal glass of mineral water. The Fuhrer’s death was to be a loud, screaming thing. A broadcast of blood over the Reichssender. ~ Ryan Graudin, #NFDB
53:But pizza was originally Italian, although, Italian pizza doesn't taste much like this because this pizza is fortified with sodium. Which is a mineral...or a vitamin. All I know is that it's good for you. ~ John Green, #NFDB
54:So many dreams are crowding upon me now that I can scarcely tell true from false: dreams like light imprisoned in bright mineral caves; hot, heavy dreams; ice-age dreams; dreams like machines in the head. ~ Anna Kavan, #NFDB
55:I'm very good at integral and differential calculus, I know the scientific names of beings animalculous; In short, in matters vegetable, animal, and mineral, I am the very model of a modern Major-General. ~ W S Gilbert, #NFDB
56:Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields? ~ Henry Ford, #NFDB
57:I am the very model of a modern Major-General, I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral, I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical, From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical. ~ W S Gilbert, #NFDB
58:The Nova Mob doesn't have motives, as we understand motives. "Sex is profoundly distasteful to a being of my mineral origin," as a leader of the Nova Mob, Mr. Bradley-Mr. Martin, said on one occasion. ~ William S Burroughs, #NFDB
59:We began as mineral. We emerged into plant life, and into the animal state, and then into being human, and always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring when we slightly recall being green again. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
60:Airline food is not intended for human consumption. It's intended as a form of in-flight entertainment, wherein the object is to guess what it is, starting with broad categories such as "mineral" and "linoleum." ~ Dave Barry, #NFDB
61:The establishment of an American Soviet government will involve the confiscation of large landed estates in town and country, and also, the whole body of forests, mineral deposits, lakes, rivers and so on. ~ William Z Foster, #NFDB
62:Sometimes when I am by myself I miss the taste of our well. Water filtered through our small piece of earth, its exact mineral consistency, the taste of home. It is the only thing I allow myself to remember. ~ Nayomi Munaweera, #NFDB
63:To trace the series of these revolutions, to explain their causes, and thus to connect together all the indications of change that are found in the mineral kingdom, is the proper object of a THEORY OF THE EARTH. ~ John Playfair, #NFDB
64:The mineral kingdom consists of the fossil substances found in the earth. These are either entirely destitute of organic structure, or, having once possessed it, possess it no longer: such are the petrefactions. ~ Torbern Bergman, #NFDB
65:Severin badgered me about the mineral rights for three days. The longer we debated, the more exasperated I became, until I said I’d see him in hell before I let him have so much as a clod of manure from Eversby Priory. ~ Lisa Kleypas, #NFDB
66:A obra literária é uma dessas mínimas porções nas quais o existente se cristaliza numa forma, adquire um sentido, que não é fixo, nem definido, nem enrijecido numa imobilidade mineral, mas tão vivo quanto um organismo. ~ Italo Calvino, #NFDB
67:The universe is illusion merely, not one speck of it real, and we are not only its victims, falling always into or smashed by a planet slung by the sun-but also its captives, bound by the mineral-made ropes of our senses. ~ Annie Dillard, #NFDB
68:We began
as a mineral. We emerged into plant life
and into the animal state, and then into being human,
and always we have forgotten our former states,
except in early spring when we slightly recall
being green again. ~ Rumi,#NFDB
69:If you have a glass full of liquid you can discourse forever on its qualities, discuss whether it is cold, warm, whether it is really and truly composed of H-2-O, or even mineral water, or saki. Meditation is Drinking it! ~ Taisen Deshimaru, #NFDB
70:Is it a spiral of water in the tragic gleam of a revolver, an egg, a glistening arc or the floodgate of reason, a keen ear attuned to a mineral hiss, or a turbine of algebraic formulas? (On Man Ray's first photograms, 1921.) ~ Tristan Tzara, #NFDB
71:If you have a glass full of liquid you can discourse forever on its qualities, discuss whether it is cold, warm, whether it is really and truly composed of H-2-O, or even mineral water, or saki. Meditation is Drinking it! ~ Taisen Deshimaru, #NFDB
72:Roger Bacon held that three classes of substance were capable of magic: the herbal, the mineral, and the verbal. With their leaves of fiber, their inks of copperas and soot, and their words, books are an amalgam of the three. ~ Matthew Battles, #NFDB
73:Breathing in, I see all my ancestors in me: my mineral ancestors, plant ancestors, mammal ancestors, and human ancestors. My ancestors are always present, alive in every cell of my body, and I play a part in their immortality. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
74:For years I looked for you. I never gave up, but I never imagined that fate would bring you to Mineral Wells."
"Not fate," Leila said. "Magic."
Magic, fate, or coincidence. Carter wasn't sure which was which anymore. ~ Neil Patrick Harris,#NFDB
75:The dietaries of the various primitive groups have all been shown to have a mineral content several times higher than that which obtains in the inadequate food eaten by modernized primitives and the people of our modernized cultures ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
76:Zlo nestaje onog trena kada krene u potragu za dobrim. Ako je sjeme egoizma gadnog mirisa, ono ipak kada dosegne ruh, zadobija svjetlo. Svaki mineral koji svoje lice okrene prema biljci, nalazi da život izrasta iz stabla njegove sudbine. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
77:This gentleman is heading for Mineral County in West Virginia. Near a place called Keyser, not too far from the Maryland line.” Which all meant nothing to Reacher, except that West Virginia sounded one step better than regular Virginia. ~ Lee Child, #NFDB
78:Farming, mineral extraction, gas and oil production, bulk cargo transport, logging, fishing, infrastructure construction—all the industries that keep the nation going are mostly unacknowledged by the people who depend on them most. ~ Sebastian Junger, #NFDB
79:Perhaps reluctantly we come to acknowledge that there are also scars which mark the surface of our earth: erosion, deforestation, the squandering of the world’s mineral and ocean resources in order to fuel an insatiable consumption. ~ Pope Benedict XVI, #NFDB
80:you’re wasting your time visiting these unless you know the saga of the homesteaders, the influence of law and religion at different times, the economic problems, the difficulties of communication, and the effects of successive mineral finds. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
81:What happened in the United changing room has happened to me 50 times in my career. I have kicked bottles of mineral water, bags and shoes but I never hit a player. It's a question of technique, and the Scots must have a better technique. ~ Marcello Lippi, #NFDB
82:You hate men, you’ve hated Daddy for years, and the sad thing is that he hasn’t known it. And the terrible thing is that you hate yourself so much that you just don’t hate men or Daddy but you hate everything, animal, vegetable and mineral. ~ William Styron, #NFDB
83:The underlying attitude comes bursting out of his words: He believes his wife is keeping something of his away from him when she doesn’t want intimate contact. He sees sexual rights to a woman as akin to mineral rights to land—and he owns them. ~ Lundy Bancroft, #NFDB
84:ÆTHIOPS-MINERAL (Æ'THIOPS-MINERAL) n.s. A medicine so called, from its dark colour, prepared of quicksilver and sulphur, ground together in a marble mortar to a black powder. Such as have used it most, think its virtues not very great.Quincy. ~ Samuel Johnson, #NFDB
85:Sulphurous and Nitrous Foame They found, they mingl'd, and with suttle Art, Concocted and adusted they reduc'd To blackest grain, and into store conveyd: Part hidd'n veins diggd up (nor hath this Earth Entrails unlike) of Mineral and Stone, ~ John Milton, #NFDB
86:como si el suelo que él pisaba con sus finas botas de charol en otro lugar del mundo le transmitiera a ella el peso y la temperatura de su sangre en un sabor mineral que dejaba un rescoldo áspero en la boca y un sedimento de paz en el corazón. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
87:The race of prophets is extinct. Europe is becoming set in its ways, slowly embalming itself beneath the wrappings of its borders, its factories, its law-courts and its universities. The frozen Mind cracks between the mineral staves which close upon it. ~ Antonin Artaud, #NFDB
88:Hurt but do not harm?” Zach asked. “What’s the difference?”
“Hurt is a bruise on the outside.” Nora sipped her mineral water delicately. “Harm is a bruise on the inside. If you’re a masochist, pain feels like love to you. Not being hurt is what hurts. ~ Tiffany Reisz,#NFDB
89:Mineral cactai, quicksilver lizards in the adobe walls, the bird that punctures space, thirst, tedium, clouds of dust, impalpable epiphanies of wind. The pines taught me to talk to myself. In that garden I learnedto send myself off. Later there were no gardens. ~ Octavio Paz, #NFDB
90:segundo ele, o corpo era feito de tempo. Acabado o tempo que nos é devido, termina também o corpo. Depois de tudo, sobra o quê? Os ossos. O não-tempo, a nossa mineral essência. Se de alguma coisa temos que tratar bem é do esqueleto, nossa tímida e oculta eternidade. ~ Mia Couto, #NFDB
91:He who runs to the doctor, vaidya, or hakim for every little ailment, and swallows all kinds of vegetable and mineral drugs, not only curtails his life, but by becoming the slave of his body instead of remaining its master, loses self-control, and ceases to be a man. ~ Mahatma Gandhi, #NFDB
92:Ways of life long forgotten on Earth gave meaning to an otherwise routine and lonely existence, or so the anthropologists who studied the planet theorized. Traditional cultures from around the Earth had made Palmares an amalgam as rare as the mineral its citizens mined. ~ Zainab Amadahy, #NFDB
93:How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life? ~ Charles Lindbergh, #NFDB
94:The biggest industrial sector next to real estate is oil, gas and other mineral resources. They don't report any taxable income, because if you depict yourself as earning a profit, you have to pay a tax on it. So, it's all about what accountants choose to declare as profit. ~ Michael Hudson, #NFDB
95:Every time our plane lands, Isabelle rushes forward with hairspray, and Barbara spritzes my face with a vaporizer full of mineral water. “The air on planes is so dry!” she laments. Then she spritzes everyone else in the vicinity, including, at times, the Secret Service. ~ Hillary Rodham Clinton, #NFDB
96:The pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion, and turns it to ranking spleen and bigotry; it makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence, and famine into other lands: it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness. ~ William Hazlitt, #NFDB
97:[C]onsciousness is no mere phosphorescent scum upon the foundations of fire and rock - a late addition to a world which is essentially unfeeling and mineral. [...] It is in the living organism that the whole world feels: it is only by virtue of eyes that stars themselves are light. ~ Alan W Watts, #NFDB
98:Mineral cactai,
quicksilver lizards in the adobe walls,
the bird that punctures space,
thirst, tedium, clouds of dust,
impalpable epiphanies of wind.
The pines taught me to talk to myself.
In that garden I learnedto send myself off.
Later there were no gardens. ~ Octavio Paz,#NFDB
99:Mineral cactai,
quicksilver lizards in the adobe walls,
the bird that punctures space,
thirst, tedium, clouds of dust,
impalpable epiphanies of wind.
The pines taught me to talk to myself.
In that garden I learnedto send myself off.
Later there were no gardens. ~ Octavio Paz,#NFDB
100:viv·i·an·ite n. a mineral consisting of a phosphate of iron that occurs as a secondary mineral in ore deposits. It is colorless when fresh but becomes blue or green with oxidization. early 19th cent.: named after John H. Vivian (1785-1855), British mineralogist, + -ITE1. ~ Oxford University Press, #NFDB
101:Wartime lipstick is necessarily cobbled together from whatever tailings and gristle were left over once all the good stuff was use to grease propeller shafts. A florid and cloying scent is needed to conceal its unspeakable mineral and animal origins.
It is the smell of War. ~ Neal Stephenson,#NFDB
102:After death, life reappears in a different form and with different laws. It is inscribed in the laws of the permanence of life on the surface of the earth and everything that has been a plant and an animal will be destroyed and transformed into a gaseous, volatile and mineral substance. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
103:Adult individuals vary in the efficiency with which they absorb minerals and other chemicals essential for mineral utilization. It is possible to starve for minerals that are abundant in the foods eaten because they cannot be utilized without an adequate quantity of the fat-soluble activators ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
104:Like all high-Lammers, I am a lucky accident of birth, gifted with a talent that can be expanded by something as simple as a mineral. A mineral unfortunately rare and extremely addictive. This—this dust—rules our lives. Sometimes I wonder if it would be better had there been no magic at all. ~ Cat Hellisen, #NFDB
105:Cultures that develop around the notion of an authoritarian Father God inevitably oppress those who do not fit the image of the all-powerful, adult, human male: children, women, homosexuals, and the nonhuman communities of animal, plant, and mineral life with which we live and share the planet. ~ Laurie Cabot, #NFDB
106:I like to call amethyst the mother/healer/teacher/lover of the mineral kingdom because it is for lack of a better term an all purpose crystal. Feeling low? It'll help. Feeling lost? It will help. Need your mom? It will help. Need reassurance that you're making a positive choice in your life? It'll help. ~ David, #NFDB
107:We think that diamonds are very important, gold is very important, all these minerals are very important. We call them precious minerals, but they are all forms of the soil. But that part of this mineral that is on top, like it is the skin of the earth, that is the most precious of the commons. ~ Wangari Maathai, #NFDB
108:It's true,' said Freddie Humbert, 'kids nowadays have got no ability to listen to simple instructions.'
'Here you go, Dad,' said Quent, returning with a tray of drinks. 'Two martinis, one with extra olives, one with no olives, one mineral water, ice and a twist of lime and a jade juice, no fruit. ~ Lauren Child,#NFDB
109:I would have loved to live in a world
of women and men gaily
in collusion with green leaves, stalks,
building mineral cities, transparent domes,
little huts of woven grass
each with its own pattern—
a conspiracy to coexist
with the Crab Nebula, the exploding
universe, the Mind— ~ Adrienne Rich,#NFDB
110:In New York, everything reminded me of my mother—every taxi, every street corner, every cloud that passed over the sun—but out in this hot mineral emptiness, it was as if she had never existed; I could not even imagine her spirit looking down on me. All trace of her seemed burned away in the thin desert air. ~ Donna Tartt, #NFDB
111:Every chemical substance, whether natural or artificial, falls into one of two major categories, according to the spatial characteristic of its form. The distinction is between those substances that have a plane of symmetry and those that do not. The former belong to the mineral, the latter to the living world. ~ Louis Pasteur, #NFDB
112:Violence Without violence, there is no nourishment. Unless the mineral is consumed, the plant cannot grow. Unless the plant is consumed, the animal cannot grow. Physical growth demands the consumption of another. Only mental growth is possible without consuming another; but it is a choice humans rarely make. ~ Devdutt Pattanaik, #NFDB
113:The main mineral in your cellphone, coltan [a black metallic ore], comes from the Eastern Congo. Multinational corporations are there exploiting the very rich mineral resources of the region. A lot of them are backing militias which are fighting one other to gain control of the resources or a piece of the resources. ~ Noam Chomsky, #NFDB
114:Khrushchev, too, looks like the kind of man his physicians must continually try to diet, and historians will some day correlate these sporadic deprivations, to which he submits “for his own good,” with his public tantrums. If there is to be a world cataclysm, it will probably be set off by skim milk, Melba toast, and mineral oil on the salad. ~ A J Liebling, #NFDB
115:Consider, for example, the tomato. If the soil it grows in is depleted, then the tomato has measurably low mineral content, less natural sugar, and more acids, which means it will be tough, tasteless, and nutritionally inferior. If it is sprayed with pesticides and herbicides, it will carry instructional messages to your body that are carcinogenic, ~ Marc David, #NFDB
116:Either Kyle was lucky or his mojo had bowled over the headwaiter, because he and Deborah were waiting outside at one of these tables working on a bottle of mineral water and a plate of what appeared to be crab cakes. I grabbed one and took a bite as I slid into a chair facing Kyle. “Yummy,” I said. “This must be where good crabs go when they die. ~ Jeff Lindsay, #NFDB
117:But partly led to diet my revenge, For that I do suspect the lusty Moor Hath leap’d into my seat: the thought whereof Doth, like a poisonous mineral, gnaw my inwards; And nothing can or shall content my soul Till I am even’d with him, wife for wife; Or, failing so, yet that I put the Moor At least into a jealousy so strong That judgement cannot cure. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
118:The public is often accused of being disconnected from its military, but frankly it's disconnected from just about everything. Farming, mineral extraction, gas and oil production, bulk cargo transport, logging, fishing, infrastructure construction—all the industries that keep the nation going are mostly unacknowledged by the people who depend on them most. ~ Sebastian Junger, #NFDB
119:Must be out-of-doors enough to get experience of wholesome reality, as a ballast to thought and sentiment. Health requires this relaxation, this aimless life. This life in the present. Let a man have thought what he will of Nature in the house, she will still be novel outdoors. I keep out of doors for the sake of the mineral, vegetable, and animal in me. ~ Henry David Thoreau, #NFDB
120:there is but the One Life—the Universal Life of God, in Whom it is an actual fact that "we live, and move, and have our being." Mineral, plant, animal, and man—all, without exception—are manifestations of God, and this fact furnishes the true basis of brotherhood—a brotherhood which includes everything from the atom to the Sun, because all are emanations from God. ~ Max Heindel, #NFDB
121:Canadian mining companies have been the main beneficiaries of the World Bank’s push to promote capitalist mineral extraction in Africa. But in their quest for profits Canadian businesses have squeezed out domestic miners and solidified the colonial economic pattern whereby foreigners export the continent’s raw materials while African countries import value added products. ~ Yves Engler, #NFDB
122:Clay consists primarily of ultra-fine-grained microscopic mineral bits that soak up water and form sticky, gooey masses. If you’ve ever gotten your foot or your car stuck in deep, wet clay, you won’t soon forget. A principal mode of clay mineral formation is weathering, especially weathering by chemical alteration under the wet, acidic conditions of the late Neoproterozoic. ~ Robert M Hazen, #NFDB
123:Latin America is the region of open veins. Everything from the discovery until our times, has always been transmuted into European--or later--United States-- capital, and as such has accumulated on distant centers of power. Everything: the soil, its fruits nad its mineral-rich depths, the people and their capacity to work and to consume, natural resources and human resources. ~ Eduardo Galeano, #NFDB
124:The world once had real problems with heretics splitting the Church and infidels at the gates of Vienna. What real benefit was the discovery of America?” “None to the inhabitants thereof,” Cannon admitted. “And its mineral wealth wrecked half the economies of Europe and financed endless wars.” “In the end was it good for the world? You cannot price knowledge you haven’t gained yet. ~ Dave Duncan, #NFDB
125:Tom Broderick spent seventeen weeks in basic training for the infantry in Mineral Wells, Texas, before heading to Fort Benning, Georgia, to become a member of the 82nd Airborne. When he finished his training, a captain offered him an instructor’s job and the rank of sergeant. Again Broderick refused the safer alternative, saying he wanted to stay with his outfit and go overseas. Broderick ~ Tom Brokaw, #NFDB
126:If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity … you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge—a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity. Your attitude towards it will be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral. —Arthur Schopenhauer ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
127:If you come across any special trait of meanness or stupidity . . . you must be careful not to let it annoy or distress you, but to look upon it merely as an addition to your knowledge—a new fact to be considered in studying the character of humanity. Your attitude towards it will be that of the mineralogist who stumbles upon a very characteristic specimen of a mineral. —Arthur Schopenhauer ~ Robert Greene, #NFDB
128:Entrepreneurs innovate. Innovation is the specific instrument of entrepreneurship. It is the act that endows resources with a new capacity to create wealth. Innovation, indeed, creates a resource. There is no such thing as a ‘resource’ until man finds a use for something in nature and thus endows it with economic value. Until then, every plant is a weed and every mineral just another rock. ~ Peter F Drucker, #NFDB
129:Consider that the earth is a processing plant, a factory. Picture a tumbler used to polish rocks: a rolling drum filled with water and sand. Consider that your soul is dropped in as an ugly rock, some raw mineral or natural resource, crude oil, mineral ore. And all conflict and pain is the abrasive that rubs us, polishes our soul, refines us, teaches and finishes us over lifetime after lifetime. ~ Chuck Palahniuk, #NFDB
130:Her face, seen so close, is built of great flats of skin pressed clean of color except for a burnish of yellow that adds to their size mineral weight, the weight of some pure porous stone carted straight from quarries to temples. Words come from this monumental Ruth in the same scale, as massive wheels rolling to the porches of his ears, as mute coins spinning in the light. “You have it pretty good. ~ John Updike, #NFDB
131:he words we did not shout, the tears unshed, the curse we swallowed,
the phrase we shortened, the love we killed, turned into magnetic iron ore,
into tourmaline, into pyrite agate, blood congealed into cinnabar, blood calcinated, leadened into galena,
oxidized, aluminized, sulphated, calcinated,
the mineral glow of dead meteors and exhausted suns in the forest of dead trees
and dead desires. ~ Ana s Nin,#NFDB
132:The words we did not shout, the tears unshed, the curse we swallowed,
the phrase we shortened, the love we killed, turned into magnetic iron ore,
into tourmaline, into pyrite agate, blood congealed into cinnabar, blood calcinated, leadened into galena,
oxidized, aluminized, sulphated, calcinated,
the mineral glow of dead meteors and exhausted suns in the forest of dead trees
and dead desires. ~ Ana s Nin,#NFDB
133:El cuerpo vive porque se desintegra, sin desintegrarse del todo. Si no se desintegrara segundo a segundo, sería un mineral. El alma vive porque es tentada constantemente, aunque se resista. Todo vive porque se opone a algo. Pero, si yo no existiera, nada existiría, porque no habría a qué oponerse, como la paloma de mi discípulo Kant, que, al volar en el aire leve, pensaba que podría volar mejor en el vacío. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
134:This document will play an important role in protecting the strategic interests of Russia and Uzbekistan and ensuring stability and security in the region, which some politicians call Russia's soft underbelly. It's not a secret that after the Soviet collapse and especially in recent years, Central Asia has become the focus of interest of major nations because of its geographic location and rich mineral resources. ~ Islom Karimov, #NFDB
135:If one looks into the genealogies of many 'old families,' one discovers episodes of slave trafficking, bootlegging, gun running, opium trading, falsified land claims, violent acquisition of water and mineral rights, the extermination of indigenous peoples, sales of shoddy and unsafe goods, public funds used for private speculations, crooked deals in government bonds and vouchers, and payoffs for political favors. ~ Michael Parenti, #NFDB
136:Every one is made of matter, and matter is continually going through a chemical change. This change is life, not wisdom, but life, like vegetable or mineral life. Every idea is matter, so of course it contains life in the name of something that can be changed. Motion, or change, is life. Ideas have life. A belief has life, or matter; for it can be changed. Now, all the aforesaid make up man; and all this can be changed. ~ Phineas Quimby, #NFDB
137:One can, then, conceive the production, by purely mineral means, of all natural hydrocarbons. The intervention of heat, of water, and of alkaline metals - lastly, the tendency of hydrocarbons to unite together to form the more condensed material - suffice to account for the formation of these curious compounds. Moreover, this formation will be continuous because the reactions which started it are renewed incessantly. ~ Marcellin Berthelot, #NFDB
138:Life appears: a complex dampness, destined to an intricate future and charged with secret virtues, capable of challenge and creation. A kind of precarious slime, of surface mildew, in which a ferment is already working. A turbulent, spasmodic sap, a presage and expectation of a new way of being, breaking with mineral perpetuity and boldly exchanging it for the doubtful privilege of being able to tremble, decay, and multiply. ~ Roger Caillois, #NFDB
139:America will aim no higher than the creation and aggressive marketing of minor consumer products that replace similar, and perfectly satisfactory, consumer products. “America may be losing a competitive edge in many enterprises, from cars to space,” riffed National Public Radio host Scott Simon in the summer of 2010, “but as long as we can devise a five-bladed, mineral-oil-saturated razor, we face the future well-shaved. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, #NFDB
140:He wanted a home. He wanted a family. He wanted to have friends. But none of those things were realistic. At least not until he came to Mineral Wells. Right now Carter was just trying to hold on to the happiness he'd found since meeting Mr. Vernon the previous night.
"To belong, okay??" Carter snapped. He felt tears in his eyes, but he wasn't sure. Quickly, he wiped at them. "You don't know what it's like to be alone. ~ Neil Patrick Harris,#NFDB
141:Thousands of years ago, his father had said, a great meteor crashed into Wakanda. Amid the smoking and burning debris, something was found—something that would change the future of their country. It was an energy-absorbing metal that vibrated upon closer inspection. The warriors of Wakanda crafted weapons from it and learned that it was stronger than any mineral, gemstone, or metal they had ever seen. They called it Vibranium. ~ Ronald L Smith, #NFDB
142:The only person on this ship who gets paid for what they do is you, Alix. The rest of us live off our trust funds and we use those funds for our humanitarian missions. I do what I do because I can’t stand to see innocent people bullied by a corrupt government. I don’t want to see a baby starve and die because some fat politician wants to work its parents into the ground for a mineral most of them can’t even pronounce. (Devyn) ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
143:Diamonds were nothing more than carbon, but carbon in a crystal lattice that made it the hardest known mineral in nature. That was the way we all were headed. I was sure of it. We were destined to be diamonds!
How exciting it was to think that, long after the world had ended, whatever was left of our bodies would be transformed into a dazzling blizzard of diamond dust, blowing out towards eternity in the red glow of a dying sun. ~ Alan Bradley,#NFDB
144:A doctor's authority in America often exceeds his or her knowledge. Whole bodies of knowledge in healing are ignored because they are unorthodox and non-medical. A doctor's education seems exhaustive, yet MDs study so much about drugs and surgery - and so little about nutrition, fasting, herbal remedies, spinal manipulation, massage, vitamin and mineral therapy, homeopathy, and more - that we realize their qualifications are incomplete. ~ Andrew Saul, #NFDB
145:He formed convictions as other men formed dependencies—a belief for him was as a thirst—and he fed his own convictions with all the erotic fervor of the willingly confirmed. This rapture extended to his self-regard. Whenever the subterranean waters of his mind were disturbed, he plunged inward, and struggled downward—kicking strongly, purposefully, as if he wished to touch the mineral depths of his own dark fantasies; as if he wished to drown. ~ Eleanor Catton, #NFDB
146:She called it a grotto. He’d read and heard of such places. Though other than being located inside this cave, he presumed this one would flout expectations, as the rest of the island had.
The water glinted a prismatic dioptase green, perhaps from deposits beneath the surface. Ripples trembled like veins, their reflections illuminating the enclosure. Jeryn slid his palm over the rocks, serrated and inlaid with mineral specks, adding to the area’s visibility. ~ Natalia Jaster,#NFDB
147:Like all magical mysteries, the secrets of the Great Work have a triple meaning: they are religious, philosophical and natural. Philosophical gold in religion is the Absolute and Supreme Reason; in philosophy, it is truth; in visible nature, it is the sun: in the subterranean and mineral world, it is the purest and most perfect gold. Hence the search after the Great Work is called the Search for the Absolute, and this work itself is termed the operation of the sun. ~ liphas L vi, #NFDB
148:For a long time it was assumed that anything so miraculously energetic as radioactivity must be beneficial. For years, manufacturers of toothpaste and laxatives put radioactive thorium in their products, and at least until the late 1920s the Glen Springs Hotel in the Finger Lakes region of New York (and doubtless others as well) featured with pride the therapeutic effects of its “Radioactive mineral springs.” Radioactivity wasn’t banned in consumer products until 1938. ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
149:Man is merely a frequent effect, a monstrosity is a rare one, but both are equally natural, equally inevitable, equally part of the universal and general order. And what is strange about that? All creatures are involved in the life of all others, consequently every species... all nature is in a perpetual state of flux. Every animal is more or less a human being, every mineral more or less a plant, every plant more or less an animal... There is nothing clearly defined in nature. ~ John Dewey, #NFDB
150:It had all been predicted in Herzl’s 1902 novel, Old New Land, in which he imagines visiting the new Jewish state in 1923 and finding the Jews not only exploiting the Dead Sea’s mineral wealth but making the desert green through irrigation and living in farm collectives that exported produce to Europe. However, he also predicted that Israel would be a German-speaking nation and that Arabs would eagerly welcome Jews for the economic development they would bring to the region. ~ Mark Kurlansky, #NFDB
151:Yet the leaf is the chief product and phenomenon of Life: this is a green world, with animals comparatively few and small, and all dependent on the leaves. By leaves we live. Some people have strange ideas that they live by money. They think energy is generated by the circulation of coins. Whereas the world is mainly a vast leaf colony, growing on and forming a leafy soil, not a mere mineral mass: and we live not by the jingling of our coins, but by the fullness of our harvests. ~ Patrick Geddes, #NFDB
152:I died as mineral and became a plant,
I died as plant and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was human,
Why should I fear? When was I less by dying?
Yet once more I shall die human,
To soar with angels blessed above.
And when I sacrifice my angel soul
I shall become what no mind ever conceived.
As a human, I will die once more,
Reborn, I will with the angels soar.
And when I let my angel body go,
I shall be more than mortal mind can know.”
― Rumi ~ Rumi,#NFDB
153:I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one’s burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. ~ Sean Carroll, #NFDB
154:[To] explain the phenomena of the mineral kingdom ... systems are usually reduced to two classes, according as they refer to the origin of terrestrial bodies to FIRE or to WATER; and ... their followers have of late been distinguished by the fanciful names of Vulcanists and Neptunists. To the former of these Dr HUTTON belongs much more than to the latter; though, as he employs the agency both of fire and water in his system, he cannot, in strict propriety, be arranged with either. ~ John Playfair, #NFDB
155:I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain. One always finds one's burden again. But Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night-filled mountain, in itself, forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
156:Ms. Maxwell,", the housekeeper turned her attention to Lily. "I think a hot soak would do you good."
Lily clasped her hands together, a look of entreaty on her face. "Do you have a tub? A soak sounds wonderful."
Tyler winked at her. "Better than a tub. We have mineral hot springs - good for what ails you."
"What in the world?" Her eyes widened and her mouth pinched. "Hot springs? Outdoors?"
He grinned at the proper expression on her face. "Outside under God's blue sky. ~ Debra Holland,#NFDB
157:Making women into small business owners, factory workers, and heads of households, not participants & leaders of collective social movements or activists demanding more accountability of the World Trade Organization, the IMF or the World Bank, these institutions maintain control over the economic growth and development of these countries and provide access to cheap labor, mineral resources, and military bases for the global north while the women themselves remain at or below poverty level. ~ Ann Russo, #NFDB
158:Some molecules - ammonia, carbon dioxide, water - show up everywhere in the universe, whether life is present or not. But others pop up especially in the presence of life itself. Among the biomarkers in Earth's atmosphere are ozone-destroying chlorofluorocarbons from aerosol sprays, vapor from mineral solvents, escaped coolants from refrigerators and air conditioners, and smog from the burning of fossil fuels. No other way to read that list: sure signs of the absence of intelligence. ~ Neil deGrasse Tyson, #NFDB
159:small town in eastern Belgium, southeast of Liège; pop. 10,140. It has been celebrated since medieval times for the curative properties of its mineral springs. spa n. a mineral spring considered to have health-giving properties. a place or resort with such a spring. a commercial establishment offering health and beauty treatment through such means as steam baths, exercise equipment, and massage. a bath or small pool containing hot aerated water. early 17th cent.: from SPA. ~ Oxford University Press, #NFDB
160:I leave Sisyphus at the foot of the mountain! One always finds one's burden again. But
Sisyphus teaches the higher fidelity that negates the gods and raises rocks. He too
concludes that all is well. This universe henceforth without a master seems to him neither
sterile nor futile. Each atom of that stone, each mineral flake of that night filled mountain,
in itself forms a world. The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man's
heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy ~ Albert Camus,#NFDB
161:CHOW^TM contained spun, plaited, and woven protein molecules, capped and coded, carefully designed to be ignored by even the most ravenous digestive tract enzymes; no-cal sweeteners; mineral oils replacing vegetable oils; fibrous materials, colorings, and flavorings. The end result was a foodstuff almost indistinguishable from any other except for two things. Firstly, the price, which was slightly higher, and secondly, the nutritional content, which was roughly equivalent to that of a Sony Walkman. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
162:What is coping? This is what it is like: a cave underground deep in rock, hung across its roof with accretions of dripping salts. I am cavernous and hard as mineral. The cave holds a pool of dark water that has not seen light. The water is very cold; it is undrinkable and its size is unmapped. It is mine, but people cannot see it. Only Ev sometimes senses that it is there. All the time people say that I am coping very well. It is impossible to explain my strategy to them. It is opaque even to me. ~ Marion Coutts, #NFDB
163:the thing i found offensive, the thing i hated about mohican-mountain-makers, gill-netters, poachers, whalehunters, strip-miners, herbicide-spewers, dam-erectors, nuclear-reactor-builders or anyone who lusted after flesh, meat, mineral, tree, pelt and dollar - including, first and foremost, myself - was the smug ingratitude, the attitude that assumed the world and its creatures owed us everything we could catch, shoot, tear out, alter, plunder, devour...and we owed the world nothing in return. ~ David James Duncan, #NFDB
164:Something in one's heart takes fright, not at the thought of growing old, not at feeling one's youth used up in this mineral universe, but at the thought that far away the whole world is ageing. The trees have brought forth their fruit; the grain has ripened in the fields; the women have bloomed in their loveliness. But the season is advancing and one must make haste; but the season is advancing and still one cannot leave; but the season is advancing...and other men will glean the harvest. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
165:She had had the idea that the mineral world was a world of perfect, inanimate forms, with an unchanging mathematical order of crystals and molecules beneath its sprouts and flows and branches. She had thought, when she started thinking, about her own transfiguration as something profoundly unnatural, a move from a world of warm change and decay to a world of cold permanence.But as she became mineral, and looked into the idea of minerals, she saw that there were reciprocities, both physical and figurative. ~ A S Byatt, #NFDB
166:Well?” West asked expectantly as Devon’s silence stretched out.
“I can’t trust that it’s real,” he managed to say, “until I know more.”
“You can trust it. Believe me, a hundred thousand tons of stone is not going to vanish from beneath our feet.”
A slow grin worked over Devon’s face. “Now I understand why Severin tried so hard to obtain the mineral rights.”
“Thank God you’re so stubborn.”
Devon laughed. “That’s the first time you’ve ever said that to me.”
“And the last,” West assured him. ~ Lisa Kleypas,#NFDB
167:The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the terrestrial globe. Its breath is pure and life-giving. It is an immense desert place where man is never lonely, for he senses the weaving of Creation on every hand. It is the physical embodiment of a supernatural existence... For the sea is itself nothing but love and emotion. It is the Living Infinite, as one of your poets has said. Nature manifests herself in it, with her three kingdoms: mineral, vegetable, and animal. The ocean is the vast reservoir of Nature. ~ Jules Verne, #NFDB
168:Travel now by all means—if you have the time. But travel the right way, the way I travel. I am always reading and thinking of the history and geography of a place. I see its people in terms of these, placed in the social framework of time and space. Take the prairies, for example; you’re wasting your time visiting these unless you know the saga of the homesteaders, the influence of law and religion at different times, the economic problems, the difficulties of communication, and the effects of successive mineral finds. ~ Oliver Sacks, #NFDB
169:There is no agreement on the extent to which metabolism could develop independently of a genetic material. In my opinion, there is no basis in known chemistry for the belief that long sequences of reactions can organize spontaneously -- and every reason to believe that they cannot. The problem of achieving sufficient specificity, whether in aqueous solution or on the surface of a mineral, is so severe that the chance of closing a cycle of reactions as complex as the reverse citric acid cycle, for example, is negligible. ~ Leslie Orgel, #NFDB
170:We passed Clarabelle," Skulduggery said. "She drank from one of the test tubes she was holding."
Kenspeckle's head dropped. "That girl," he said. "One of these days she'll learn. I don't know what she'll learn, but she'll learn and it will be a good day."
"Is she in any danger?"
He started searching drawers. "Not really. Both tubes contain mineral water. You'd be astonished how many I've given her water and told her it was something else and not to drink it. She always drinks it though. Always. It's a compulsion. ~ Derek Landy,#NFDB
171:We know very well that we have ancestors. But our ancestors are not only human. We have animal ancestors; we have plant ancestors; and we have mineral ancestors. Our human ancestors are still very young. Human beings appeared very late in the history of life on Earth. Our animal ancestors are still there within us. The reptile, the fish, and the ape are still in our blood. Not only were they part of us in the past, but they continue to exist within us. Just look deeply into your cells. We see that we are the whole history of life. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh, #NFDB
172:In other words, Navajo country. It was, Carleton said, “a princely realm…a magnificent mineral country. Providence has indeed blessed us, for the gold lies here at our feet to be had by the mere picking of it up.” Where Carleton obtained his evidence for these claims was not clear—he seems to have simply wished it into being. The more salient point was this: There might be gold in Navajo country. To ensure the safety of geological exploration, and the inevitable onrush of miners once a strike was made, the Diné would have to be removed. ~ Hampton Sides, #NFDB
173:Joseph Pritchard always sought the hidden motive, the underlying truth; conspiracy enthralled him. He formed convictions as other men formed dependencies—a belief for him was as a thirst—and he fed his own convictions with all the erotic fervor of the willingly confirmed. This rapture extended to his self-regard. Whenever the subterranean waters of his mind were disturbed, he plunged inward, and struggled downward—kicking strongly, purposefully, as if he wished to touch the mineral depths of his own dark fantasies; as if he wished to drown. ~ Eleanor Catton, #NFDB
174:Human vocabulary is still not capable, and probably never will be, of knowing, recognizing, and communicating everything that can be humanly experienced and felt. Some say that the main cause of this very serious difficulty lies in the fact that human beings are basically made of clay, which, as the encyclopedias helpfully explain, is a detrital sedimentary rock made up of tiny mineral fragments measuring one two hundred and fifty-sixths of a millimeter. Until now, despite long linguistic study, no one has managed to come up with a name for this. ~ Jos Saramago, #NFDB
175:surprisingly dramatic glow some minerals gave off when illuminated with ultraviolet light, or “black light.” In daylight, for instance, the mineral fluorite is a drab, chalky color; in a dark room under UV light, though, fluorite glows a brilliant blue; the mineral calcite shines bright red; and aragonite gives off a neon green. If you’ve ever stepped into a teenager’s cavelike room decorated with black-light posters (less common now than they were in the 1970s, when my three sons were growing up), you’ve seen another version of UV fluorescence in action. ~ William M Bass, #NFDB
176:I know that mood. Three years of the desert taught it to me. Something in one’s heart takes fright, not at the thought of growing old, not at feeling one’s youth used up in this mineral universe, but at the thought that far away the whole world is ageing. The trees have brought forth their fruit; the grain has ripened in the fields; the women have bloomed in their loveliness. But the season is advancing and one must make haste; but the season is advancing and still one cannot leave; but the season is advancing ... and other men will glean the harvest. ~ Antoine de Saint Exup ry, #NFDB
177:Puesto que es necesario que las libélulas Seccionen sin fin la atmósfera Que sobre el estanque estallen las burbujas, Puesto que todo acaba en materia. Puesto que la piel del vegetal, Como un moho obsceno Debe gangrenar el mineral, Puesto que debemos salir de escena Y tendernos en la tierra Como se alcanza un mal sueño Puesto que la vejez es amarga, Puesto que todo día se acaba En el asco, el tedio, En la indiferente naturaleza Someteremos nuestra piel a examen, Buscaremos el placer puro Nuestras noches serán interludios En la horrible calma del azul eterno. ~ Michel Houellebecq, #NFDB
178:A rock or stone is not a subject that, of itself, may interest a philosopher to study; but, when he comes to see the necessity of those hard bodies, in the constitution of this earth, or for the permanency of the land on which we dwell, and when he finds that there are means wisely provided for the renovation of this necessary decaying part, as well as that of every other, he then, with pleasure, contemplates this manifestation of design, and thus connects the mineral system of this earth with that by which the heavenly bodies are made to move perpetually in their orbits. ~ James Hutton, #NFDB
179:"It is essential to understand this point thoroughly: that the thing-in-itself, whether animal, vegetable, or mineral, is not only unknowable-it does not exist. This is important not only for sanity and peace of mind, but also for the most "practical" reasons of economics, politics, and technology.. This is not to say only that things exist in relation to one another, but that what we call "things" are no more than glimpses of a unified process. Certainly, this process has distinct features which catch our attention, but we must remember that distinction is not separation." ~ Alan Watts, #NFDB
180:The movements of nature are in a never ending circle. The animal species which has once been put into a train of motion, is still probably moving in that train. For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another and another might be lost, till this whole system of things should evanish by piece-meal; a conclusion not warranted by the local disappearance of one or two species of animals, and opposed by the thousands and thousands of instances of the renovating power constantly exercised by nature for the reproduction of all her subjects, animal, vegetable, and mineral. ~ Thomas Jefferson, #NFDB
181:I guess we need to find a way to the quarry?” Jesper said.
Wylan coughed. “No we don’t, just a general store.”
“But you told Kaz the mineral—”
“It’s present in all kinds of paints and enamels. I wanted to make sure I had a reason to go to Olendaal.”
“Wylan Van Eck, you lied to Kaz Brekker.” Jesper clutched a hand to his chest. “And you got away with it! Do you give lessons?”
Wylan felt ridiculously pleased—until he thought about Kaz finding out. Then he felt a little like the first time he’d tried brandy and ended up spewing his dinner all over his own shoes. ~ Leigh Bardugo,#NFDB
182:My prayers seem to be more of an attitude than anything else. I indulge in very little lip service, but ask the Great Creator silently, daily, and often many times a day, to permit me to speak to Him through the three great Kingdoms of the world which He has created - the animal, mineral, and vegetable Kingdoms - to understand their relations to each other, and our relations to them and to the Great God who made all of us. I ask Him daily and often momently to give me wisdom, understanding, and bodily strength to do His will; hence I am asking and receiving all the time. ~ George Washington Carver, #NFDB
183:Kidney Stones Eating a plant-based diet to alkalinize your urine may also help prevent and treat kidney stones—those hard mineral deposits that can form in your kidneys when the concentration of certain stone-forming substances in your urine becomes so high they start to crystallize. Eventually, these crystals can grow into pebble-sized rocks that block the flow of urine, causing severe pain that tends to radiate from one side of the lower back toward the groin. Kidney stones can pass naturally (and often painfully), but some become so large that they have to be removed surgically. ~ Michael Greger, #NFDB
184:Si escribiera realmente la verdad, debería decir que lo que más hice esos dos o tres primeros días fue pasear entre las arboledas, visitar hosterías, beber agua mineral, comprar un sombrero alpino y hablar de la naturaleza con gente un poco estúpida cuyo aire de vivacidad era un producto efímero del exceso de oxígeno, empresarios, abogados, esposas de martilleros públicos que, como yo, habían llegado a La Cumbrecita con la ilusión de purificarse de esos basureros que llamamos ciudades, y que, lejos de sus televisores y sesiones de psicoanálisis, se sentían amables y parte del mundo natural. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
185:... the marines had invaded the country under the pretext of exterminating yellow fever and were going about beheading every inveterate or eventual potter they found in their path, and not only natives, out of precaution, but also the Chinese, for distraction, the Negroes, from habit, and the Hindus, because they were snake charmers, and then they wiped out the flora and the fauna and all the mineral wealth they were able to because their specialists in our affairs had taught them that the people along the Caribbean had the ability to change their nature in order to confuse gringos. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
186:He shrugged off the melancholy thoughts, turned his ship around and made his way to his own isolated home. That was the only place where he felt safe. The only place where he felt even the slightest bit like he belonged. It didn’t take long to reach the orange and yellow planet that wasn’t on most maps. It had a peculiar orbit that system engineers had deemed impossible for development. But it worked well for his needs. Besides, his home wasn’t on the planet itself. It hovered in the upper atmosphere where the outside was coated with reflekakor—a mineral that would keep it from showing up on any scanners. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
187:Eating refined carbohydrates—as opposed to complex carbohydrates in their natural state—causes the body’s “set point” for body weight to increase. Your “set point” is the weight the body tries to maintain through the brain’s control of hormonal messengers. When you eat refined fats (oils) or refined carbohydrates such as white flour and sugar, the fat-storing hormones are produced in excess, raising the set point. To further compound the problem, because so much of the vitamin and mineral content of these foods has been lost during processing, you naturally crave more food to make up for the missing nutrients. ~ Joel Fuhrman, #NFDB
188:The calcium in vegetable sources may prove more bioavailable (useful to the body) than the stuff you get from milk. One study compared the absorption of calcium from kale and from milk and found kale the clear winner. (Yeah, kale!) Recent studies have shown that plant-sourced calcium in particular increases bone-mineral density and reduces the risk of osteoporosis. This is probably not just due to the calcium content of the plant—the complement of other vitamins (such as vitamin K), minerals, and phytonutrients work synergistically to provide additional benefits to bones. Yet another reason to eat your greens. ~ Melissa Hartwig, #NFDB
189:Once I started seeing the college clinic psychiatrist, he pulled out my blood and showed me what was really in it, glanced at each trace mineral in the lab results, each lurking marker, but his eyes were focused on the good stuff, the chemicals he'd put there. I don't know if I believe in "Indian blood," but at times, I have wished I could test positive for it when the phlebotomist pulled my blood every month, checking to make sure my lithium levels aren't high enough to pickle my kidneys. Instead, the doctor only ever reads off results that sound like the bottom of a deep quarry, as though my body collects stones. ~ Elissa Washuta, #NFDB
190:Wilson’s weakness was to be over-literal, or to assume that his opponents were. One treatise, The Uttermost Pit, demonstrated with considerable geological learning that there could not be space within the mineral bowels of the Earth for any chambers big enough to contain all the damned souls of the ages. A third, Going to Gehenna, purported to show that the biblical references to the infernal domain were in point of fact to real places of sinister repute, and not to anywhere metaphysical. Wilson lost no opportunity to argue, with any evidence he found to hand, that there could not be any hell or Hades, and so none should fear them. ~ Mark Valentine, #NFDB
191:She had always thought that exquisitely happy time at the beginning of her relationship with Nick was the ultimate, the feeling they’d always be trying to replicate, to get back, but now she realized that was wrong. That was like comparing sparkling mineral water to French champagne. Early love is exciting and exhilarating. It’s light and bubbly. Anyone can love like that. But love after three children, after a separation and a near-divorce, after you’ve hurt each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you’ve seen the worst and the best—well, that sort of a love is ineffable. It deserves its own word. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
192:She had always thought that exquisitely happy time at the beginning of her relationship with Nick was the ultimate, the feeling they’d always be trying to replicate, to get back, but now she realized that was wrong. That was like comparing sparkling mineral water to French champagne. Early love is exciting and exhilarating. It’s light and bubbly. Anyone can love like that. But love after three children, after a separation and a near-divorce, after you’ve hurt each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you’ve seen the worst and the best – well, that sort of love is ineffable. It deserves its own word. ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
193:She had always thought that exquisitely happy time at the beginning of her relationship with Nick was the ultimate, the feeling they'd always be trying to replicate, to get back, but now she realized that was wrong. That was like comparing sparkling mineral water to French champagne. Early love is exciting and exhilarating. It's light and bubbly. Anyone can love like that. But love after three children, after a separation and a near-divorce, after you've hurt each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you've seen the worst and the best--well, that sort of a love is ineffable. It deserves its own word. ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
194:Vaporized by the sun! Wasn't that what the universe had in store for all of us? There would come a day when the sun exploded like a red balloon, and everyone on earth would be reduced in less than a camera flash to carbon. Didn't Genesis say as much? For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. This was far more than dull old theology: It was precise scientific observation! Carbon was the Great Leveler--the Grim Reaper.
Diamonds were nothing more than carbon, but carbon in a crystal lattice that made it the hardest known mineral in nature. That was the way we all were headed. I was sure of it. We were destined to be diamonds! ~ Alan Bradley,#NFDB
195:I have a deep thought for you. Science fiction is just beginning to catch up with the Old Testament. See artificial nitrates run off into the rivers and oceans. See carbon dioxide melt the polar ice caps. See the world's mineral reserves dwindle. See war, famine and plague. See barbaric hordes defile the temple of virgins. See wild stallions mount the prairie dogs. I said science fiction but I guess I meant science. Anyway there's some kind of mythical and/or historic circle-thing being completed here. But I keep smiling. I keep telling myself there's nothing to worry about as long as the youth of America knows what's going on. Brains, brawn, good teeth. tallness. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
196:The London Ironstone lease. Did you sign it?”
“Yesterday.”
West let out a curse that attracted a slew of censorious gazes from the crowd on the platform. “What of the mineral rights?”
“The mineral rights on the land we’re leasing to the railway?” Devon clarified.
“Yes, did you give them to Severin? Any of them?”
“I kept all of them.”
West stared at him without blinking. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“Of course I am. Severin badgered me about the mineral rights for three days. The longer we debated, the more exasperated I became, until I said I’d see him in hell before I let him have so much as a clod of manure from Eversby Priory. ~ Lisa Kleypas,#NFDB
197:The excess of calories over body building minerals is exceedingly high in sweets of various kinds regardless of their special branding and the methods of manufacture and storage. There is very little of the body building minerals in maple syrup, cane syrup from sugar or honey. They can all defeat an otherwise efficient dietary. The problem is not so simple as merely cutting down or eliminating sugars and white flour though this is exceedingly important. It is also necessary that adequate mineral and vitamin carrying foods be made available. It is also necessary to realize that many of our important foods for providing vitamins are very low in body building material. For example, one ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
198:/Farsi From the un-manifest I came, And pitched my tent, in the Forest of Material existence. I passed through mineral and vegetable kingdoms, Then my mental equipment carried me into the animal kingdom; Having reached there I crossed beyond it; Then in the crystal clear shell of human heart I nursed the drop of self in a Pearl, And in association with good men Wandered round the Prayer House, And having experienced that, crossed beyond it; Then I took the road that leads to Him, And became a slave at His gate; Then the duality disappeared And I became absorbed in Him. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Munajat: The Intimate Invocations, by Sheikh Ansari / Translated by A. G. Farhadi
~ Khwaja Abdullah Ansari, I Came
,#NFDB
199:The race of prophets is extinct. Europe is becoming set in its ways, slowly embalming itself beneath the wrappings of its borders, its factories, its law-courts and its universities. The frozen Mind cracks between the mineral staves which close upon it. The fault lies with your mouldy systems, your logic of 2 + 2 = 4. The fault lies with you, Chancellors, caught in the net of syllogisms. You manufacture engineers, magistrates, doctors, who know nothing of the true mysteries of the body or the cosmic laws of existence. False scholars blind outside this world, philosophers who pretend to reconstruct the mind. The least act of spontaneous creation is a more complex and revealing world than any metaphysics. ~ Antonin Artaud, #NFDB
200:Through the mental body, man secures that reflection and thought which make him greater than the animal; through the astral body, he secures those qualities of motion and emotion--sense, color and feeling, and any other qualities--the expression of which makes the animal superior to the plant; through the etheric body, he gains the power of reproducing his species and also the functions of assimilation and excretion, for in these things the plant is greater than the mineral. Of course, the mineral, by its actual existence, proves its superiority over the myriads of swirling gaseous, formless essences which have not yet even the power of appearing in the physical world. ~ Manly P Hall, Magic: A Treatise on Esoteric Ethics, #NFDB
201:Really, her spirit is everywhere, Lily, just everywhere. Inside rocks and trees and even people, but sometimes it will get concentrated in certain places and just beam out at you in a special way.'
I had never thought of it like that, and it gave me a shocked feeling, like maybe I had no idea what kind of world I was actually living in, and maybe the teachers at my school didn't know either, the way they talked about everything being nothing but carbon and oxygen and mineral, the dullest stuff you can imagine. I started thinking about the world loaded with disguised Marys sitting around all over the place and hidden red hearts tucked about that people could rub and touch, only we didn't recognize them. ~ Sue Monk Kidd,#NFDB
202:There’s only one thing that the ruling circles throughout history have ever wanted-all the wealth, the treasures, and the profitable returns; all the choice lands and forests and game and herds and harvests and mineral deposits and precious metals of the earth; all the productive facilities and gainful inventiveness and technologies; all the control positions of the state and other major institutions; all public supports and subsidies, privileges and immunities; all the protections of the law and none of its constraints; all of the services and comforts and luxuries and advantages of civil society with none of the taxes and none of the costs. Every ruling class in history has wanted only this-all the rewards and none of the burdens. ~ Michael Parenti, #NFDB
203:Tchitcherine will reach the Kirghiz Light, but not his birth. He is no aqyn, and his heart was never ready. He will see It just before dawn. He will spend 12 hours then, face-up on the desert, a prehistoric city greater than Babylon lying in stifled mineral sleep a kilometer below his back, as the shadow of the tall rock, rising to a point, dances west to east and Dzaqyp Qulan tends him, anxious as a child and doll, and drying foam laces the necks of the two horses. But someday, like the mountains, like the young exiled women in their certain love, in their innocence of him, like the morning earthquakes and the cloud-driving wind, a purge, a war, and millions after millions of osuls gone behind him, he will hardly be able to remember It. ~ Thomas Pynchon, #NFDB
204:The greatest challenge that has surreptitiously arisen in our age is the challenge of knowledge, indeed, not as against ignorance; but knowledge as conceived and disseminated throughout the world by Western civilization; knowledge whose nature has become problematic because it has lost its true purpose due to being unjustly conceived, and has thus brought about chaos in man's life instead of, and rather than, peace and justice; knowledge which pretends to be real but which is productive of confusion and scepticism, which has elevated doubt and conjecture to the 'scientific' rank in methodology; knowledge which has, for the first time in history, brought chaos to the Three Kingdom of Nature; the animal, vegetal and mineral. ~ Syed Muhammad Naquib al Attas, #NFDB
205:A large amount of India’s mineral deposits lies in a stretch across the ecologically sensitive and biodiversity-rich central region of the country. Two broad kinds of violence and protests are playing out here. On the one hand the residents and activists of these areas are protesting against the reckless industries that are making their fortunes at the cost of public health and environmental damage and on the other is the violence between armed left-wing extremists and government forces. Both movements are reflective of the desperation among some of India’s poorest people. Governments and political establishments have termed the civilian protests as anti-national efforts by foreign-funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the armed rebellion as terrorism. When ~ Josy Joseph, #NFDB
206:He lay in bed open-eyed in the dark. There were intestinal moans from his left side, where gas makes a hairpin turn at the splenic flexure. He felt a mass of phlegm wobbling in his throat but he didn’t want to get out of bed to expel it, so he swallowed the whole nasty business, a slick syrupy glop. This was the texture of his life. If someone ever writes his true biography, it will be a chronicle of gas pains and skipped heartbeats, grinding teeth and dizzy spells and smothered breath, with detailed descriptions of Bill leaving his desk to walk to the bathroom and spit up mucus, and we see photographs of ellipsoid clots of cells, water, organic slimes, mineral salts and spotty nicotine. Or descriptions just as long and detailed of Bill staying where he is and swallowing. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
207:I was the only person in an infinite exploding universe who knew that this powder was made of opal. In a wide, wide world, full of unimaginable numbers of people, I was—in addition to being small and insufficient—special. I was not only a quirky bundle of genes, but I was also unique existentially, because of the tiny detail that I knew about Creation, because of what I had seen and then understood. Until I phoned someone, the concrete knowledge that opal was the mineral that fortified each seed on each hackberry tree was mine alone. Whether or not this was something worth knowing seemed another problem for another day. I stood and absorbed this revelation as my life turned a page, and my first scientific discovery shone, as even the cheapest plastic toy does when it is new. I ~ Hope Jahren, #NFDB
208:For a long time it was assumed that anything so miraculously energetic as radioactivity must be beneficial. For years, manufacturers of toothpaste and laxatives put radioactive thorium in their products, and at least until the late 1920s the Glen Springs Hotel in the Finger Lakes region of New York (and doubtless others as well) featured with pride the therapeutic effects of its ‘Radio-active mineral springs27’. It wasn’t banned in consumer products until 193828. By this time it was much too late for Mme Curie, who died of leukaemia in 1934. Radiation, in fact, is so pernicious and long-lasting that even now her papers from the 1890s – even her cookbooks – are too dangerous to handle. Her lab books are kept in lead-lined boxes29 and those who wish to see them must don protective clothing. ~ Bill Bryson, #NFDB
209:She thought how she might describe it, the way they bobbed on the illuminated water’s gentle swell, and how their hair spread like tendrils and their clothed bodies softly collided and drifted apart. The dry night air slipped between the fabric of her dress and her skin, and she felt smooth and agile in the dark. There was nothing she could not describe: the gentle pad of a maniac’s tread moving sinuously along the drive, keeping to the verge to muffle his approach. But her brother was with Cecilia, and that was a burden lifted. She could describe this delicious air too, the grasses giving off their sweet cattle smell, the hard-fired earth which still held the embers of the day’s heat and exhaled the mineral odor of clay, and the faint breeze carrying from the lake a flavor of green and silver. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
210:Enter tantalum, niobium, and cellular technology. Now, I don’t mean to impute direct blame. Clearly, cell phones didn’t cause the war—hatred and grudges did. But just as clearly, the infusion of cash perpetuated the brawl. Congo has 60 percent of the world’s supply of the two metals, which blend together in the ground in a mineral called coltan. Once cell phones caught on—sales rose from virtually zero in 1991 to more than a billion by 2001—the West’s hunger proved as strong as Tantalus’s, and coltan’s price grew tenfold. People purchasing ore for cell phone makers didn’t ask and didn’t care where the coltan came from, and Congolese miners had no idea what the mineral was used for, knowing only that white people paid for it and that they could use the profits to support their favorite militias. Oddly, ~ Sam Kean, #NFDB
211:When she started back she saw a blue jay perched atop the feeder. She stopped dead and held her breath. It stood large and polished and looked royally remote from the other birds busy feeding and she could nearly believe she'd never seen a jay before. It stood enormous, looking in at her, seeing whatever it saw, and she wanted to tell Rey to look up. She watched it, black-barred across the wings and tail, and she thought she'd somehow only now learned how to look. She'd never seen a thing so clearly and it was not simply because the jay was posted where it was, close enough for her to note the details of cresting and color. There was also the clean shock of its appearance among the smaller brownish birds, its mineral blue and muted blue and broad dark neckband. But if Rey looked up, the bird would fly. ~ Don DeLillo, #NFDB
212:Releasing the Sherpas
The last two sherpas were the strongest,
faithful companions, their faces wind-peeled,
streaked with soot and glacier-light on the snowfield
below the summit where we stopped to rest.
The first was my body, snug in its cap of lynxfur, smelling of yak butter and fine mineral dirt,
agile, impetuous, broad-shouldered,
alive to the frozen bite of oxygen in the larynx.
The second was my intellect, dour and thirsty,
furrowing its fox-like brow, my calculating brain
searching for some cairn or chasm to explain
my decision to send them back without me.
Looking down from the next, ax-cleft serac
I saw them turn and dwindle and felt unafraid.
Blind as a diamond, sun-pure and rarefied,
whatever I was then, there was no turning back.
~ Campbell McGrath,#NFDB
213:Physicists then tried to calculate the amount of negative matter or energy necessary to propel a starship. The latest results indicate that the amount required is equivalent to the mass of the planet Jupiter. This means that only a very advanced civilization will be able to use negative matter or energy to propel their starships, if it is possible at all. (However, it is possible that the amount of negative matter or energy necessary to go faster than light could drop, because the calculations depend on the geometry and size of the warp bubble or wormhole.)
Star Trek gets around this inconvenient hurdle by postulating that a rare mineral called the dilithium crystal is the essential component of a warp drive engine. Now we know that "dilithium crystals" may be a fancy way of saying "negative matter or energy. ~ Michio Kaku,#NFDB
214:Available data indicate that the blood and saliva normally carry defensive factors which when present control the growth of the acid producing organisms and the local reactions at tooth surfaces. When these defensive factors are not present the acid producing organisms multiply and produce an acid which dissolves tooth structure. The origin of this protective factor is provided in nutrition and is directly related to the mineral content of the foods and to known and unknown vitamins particularly the fat-soluble. Clinical data demonstrate that by following the program outlined dental caries can be prevented or controlled when active in practically all individuals. This does not require either permission or prescription but it is the inherent right of every individual. A properly balanced diet is good for the entire body ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
215:In the Biblical story, man dwelt in a Paradisiacal sphere before his fall into the mystery of generation. This Paradisiacal sphere is called a garden, and has been variously located by religious enthusiasts upon almost every part of the earth's surface. Eden is not, however, on the earth's surface, but above it, or, more correctly, in a higher etheric element which encloses the earth in a globe of translucent energy. The four rivers are the four streams of ether or energy which sustain the four kingdoms of the physical world - mineral, vegetable, animal, and human. Man physically is nourished by the vital ethers of nature. Man physically is nourished by the vital ethers of nature. These ethers now work through him, but in pre-Adamic times he possessed no physical body and these ethers formed an etheric body. ~ Manly P Hall, How to Understand Your Bible, #NFDB
216:What of the mineral rights?”
“The mineral rights on the land we’re leasing to the railway?” Devon clarified.
“Yes, did you give them to Severin? Any of them?”
“I kept all of them.”
West stared at him without blinking. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“Of course I am. Severin badgered me about the mineral rights for three days. The longer we debated, the more exasperated I became, until I said I’d see him in hell before I let him have so much as a clod of manure from Eversby Priory. I walked out, but just as I reached the street, he shouted from the fifth-floor window that he gave in and I should come back.”
West leaped forward as if he were about to embrace him, then checked the movement. He shook Devon’s hand violently and proceeded to thump his back with painful vigor. “By God, I love you, you pigheaded bastard! ~ Lisa Kleypas,#NFDB
217:In the procession of pieces, which Ikegawa changes based on his read of each guest, you find crunch and chew, fat and cartilage, soft, timid tenderness and bursts of outrageous savory intensity. He starts me with the breast, barely touched by the flame, pink in the center, green on top from a smear of wasabi, a single bite buries a lifetime of salmonella hysteria. A quick-cooked skewer of liver balances the soft, melting fattiness of foie with a gentle mineral bite. The tsukune, a string of one-bite orbs made from finely chopped thigh meat, arrives blistered on the outside, studded with pieces of cartilage that give the meatballs a magnificent chew. Chochin, the grilled uterus, comes with a proto-egg attached to the skewer like a rising sun. The combination of snappy meat and molten yolk is the stuff taste memories are made of. ~ Matt Goulding, #NFDB
218:Metal is from the earth, he thought as he scrutinized. From below: from that realm which is the lowest, the most dense. Land of trolls and caves, dank, always dark. Yin world, in its most melancholy aspect. World of corpses, decay and collapse. Of feces. All that has died, slipping and disintegrating back down layer by layer. The daemonic world of the immutable; the time-that-was.
And yet, in the sunlight, the silver triangle glittered. It reflected light. Fire, Mr. Tagomi thought. Not dank or dark object at all. Not heavy, weary, but pulsing with life. The high realm, aspect of yang: empyrean, ethereal. As befits work of art. Yes, that is artist's job: takes mineral rock from dark silent earth transforms it into shining light-reflecting form from sky.
Has brought the dead to life. Corpse turned to fiery display; the past had yielded to the future. ~ Philip K Dick,#NFDB
219:word noosphere, which refers to the world of human thought. It is the end product of a hierarchy of earthly spheres. At the bottom of these is the geosphere, the physical inanimate world of rock, ocean and mineral. From the geosphere arises the biosphere, the world of all living things. The biosphere moves and evolves faster than the geosphere, and can also change it. The noosphere, in turn, arises from the biosphere. This sphere is the realm of thought, and contains all our myth, history, science, law, religion and culture. It is more fluid and changeable than the biosphere, and it can also affect it. For example, men and women in the UK are on average 4.3 inches taller than they were a hundred years ago, due to changes in our understanding of health and nutrition. This understanding resides in the noosphere, so the noosphere in this example has physically altered the biosphere. ~ John Higgs, #NFDB
220:That the development of the human being is but the passing from one state of consciousness to another. It is a succession of expansions, a growth of that faculty of awareness that constitutes the predominant characteristic of the indwelling Thinker. It is the progressing from consciousness polarised in the personality, lower self, or body, to that polarised in the higher self, ego, or soul, thence to a polarisation in the Monad, or Spirit, till the consciousness eventually is Divine. As the human being develops, the faculty of awareness extends first of all beyond the circumscribing walls that confine it within the lower kingdoms of nature (the mineral, vegetable and animal) to the three worlds of the evolving personality, to the planet whereon he plays his part, to the system wherein that planet revolves, until it finally escapes from the solar system itself and becomes universal. ~ Alice A Bailey, #NFDB
221:As they rolled over the marshes before Venice, he fell back in his seat, windburnt and exhausted, and noticed that the bottle of water, but for its slight and elegant blue tint, was the smoothest, clearest, and most transparent thing he had ever seen. All that was reflected in it was sharp, subdued, and calm. The fields outside, beyond the reeds; the reeds themselves, waving green and yellow; the water, shockingly blue in north light, were clarified, compressed, and preserved within the lens. And if bottles of mineral water could pacify the light of mountains, fields, and the sea, to what painful mysteries would the lens of beauty be opaque? Even death, Alessandro thought, would yield to beauty—if not in fact then in explanation—for the likeness of every great question could be found in forms as simple as songs, and there, if not explicable, they were at least perfectly apprehensible. ~ Mark Helprin, #NFDB
222:you make me laugh, with your metaphysical anguish, its just that you're scared silly, frightened of life, of men of action, of action itself, of lack of order. But everything is disorder, dear boy. Vegetable, mineral and animal, all
disorder, and so is the multitude of human races, the life of man, thought,
history, wars, inventions, business and the arts, and all theories, passions
and systems. Its always been that way. Why are you trying to make something out
of it? And what will you make? what are you looking for? There is no Truth.
There's only action, action obeying a million different impulses, ephemeral
action, action subjected to every possible and imaginable contingency and
contradiction, Life. Life is crime, theft, jealousy, hunger, lies, disgust,
stupidity, sickness, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, piles of corpses. what can you do about it, my poor friend? ~ Blaise Cendrars,#NFDB
223:Incarnate ugliness, and yet alive! What would become of them all? Perhaps with the passing of the coal they would disappear again, off the face of the earth. They had appeared out of nowhere in their thousands, when the coal had called for them. Perhaps they were only
weird fauna of the coal-seams. Creatures of another reality, they were elementals, serving the elements of coal, as the metal-workers were elementals, serving the element of iron. Men not men, but animas of coal and iron and clay. Fauna of the elements, carbon, iron, silicon: elementals. They had perhaps some of the weird, inhuman beauty of minerals, the lustre of coal, the weight and blueness and resistance of iron, the transparency of glass. Elemental creatures, weird and distorted, of the mineral world! They belonged to the coal, the iron, the clay, as fish belong to the sea and worms to dead wood. The anima of mineral disintegration! ~ D H Lawrence,#NFDB
224:In the Mountains, they cooked, too.
Joe Godwin made liquor in Muscadine. Moe Shealey made it in Mineral Springs. Junior McMahan had a still in ragland. Fred and Alton Dryden made liquor in Tallapoosa, and Eulis Parker made it on Terrapin Creek. Wayne Glass knew their faces because he drove it, and made more money hauling liquor than he ever made at the cotton mill. He loaded the gallon cans into his car in the deep woods and dodged sheriffs and federal men to get it to men like Robert Kilgore, the bootlegger who sold whiskey from a house in Weaver, about ten minutes south of Jacksonville. "I could haul a hundred and fifty gallons in a Flathead Ford, at thirty-five dollars a load," he said. Wayne lost the end of one finger in the mill, but he was bulletproof when he was running liquor, and only did time once, for conspiracy. "They couldn't catch me haulin' liquor," he said, "so they got me for thinkin' about it. ~ Rick Bragg,#NFDB
225:With modern Western diets, the body must work hard to keep the blood from becoming overly acidic from the excess animal protein being eaten. To do this, it uses alkaline bone tissue substances such as bicarbonates and calcium. This can lead to the loss of bone density and helps explain the high rates of osteoporosis in cultures where people eat large quantities of acidifying animal foods. Osteoporosis rates among the Eskimo people, who eat an almost completely flesh-based diet, are among the highest in the world.18 Next are northern Europeans and North Americans, who eat high quantities of flesh, eggs, and dairy products.19 While there are other factors that may affect bone health, such as vitamin and mineral intake, levels of loadbearing exercise, and mental and emotional factors, there is evidence that brittle bones and osteoporosis are correlated with eating the large amounts of animal protein typical of our meals. ~ Will Tuttle, #NFDB
226:Alchemy is neither a premature chemistry nor a psychology in the modem sense, although both of these are to be found in alchemical writings . Alchemy is a symbolic science of natural forms based on the correspondence between different planes of reality and making use of mineral and metal symbolism to expound a spiritual science of the souh For alchemy, nature is sacred, and the alchemist is the guardian of nature considered as a theophany and reflection of spiritual realities . A purely profane chemistry could come into being only when the substances of alchemy became completely emptied of their sacred quality. For this very reason, a re-discovery of the alchemical view of nature, without in any way denying the chemical sciences which deal with substances from another point of view, could reinstate the spiritual and symbolic character of the forms, colours and processes that man encounters throughout his life in the corporeal world. ~ Seyyed Hossein Nasr, #NFDB
227:Back in Brooklyn, the wind was sharp and the streets were slick and Kat just really wished her Uncle Eddie believed in leaving a key under the mat instead of maintaining his strict stance that anyone who could not break into his Brooklyn brownstone had absolutely no business staying there without him.
“Is there a problem, Kitty Kat?” a voice said from over Kat’s shoulder. Kat’s fingers were frozen and her breath fogged, and she’d had a far too upbeat rendition of “White Christmas” stuck in her head on a perpetual loop for the past eight hours. So, yes, there was a problem. But Kat would never, ever admit it.
“I’m fine, Gabrielle,” she told her cousin.
“Really?” Gab asked. “Because if you can’t handle Uncle Eddie’s lock then someone is going to get a lump of coal in her stocking again this Christmas.”
“It wasn’t coal,” Kat shot back. “It was a very rare mineral from a condemned mine in South Africa, and it was a very thoughtful gift. ~ Ally Carter,#NFDB
228:Haven't you got it through your head that human thought is a thing of the past & that philosophy is worse than Bertillon's guide to harassed cops? You make me laugh with your metaphysical anguish, it's just that you're scared silly, frightened of life, of men of action, of action itself, of lack of order. But everything is disorder, dear boy. Vegetable, mineral & animal, all disorder, & so is the multitude of human races, the life of man, thought, history, wars, inventions, business & the arts, & all theories, passions & systems. It's always been that way. Why are you trying to make something out of it? And what will you make? What are you looking for? There's no truth. There's only action, action subjected to every possible & imaginable contingency & contradiction. Life. Life is a crime, theft, jealousy, hunger, lies, disgust, stupidity, sickness, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, piles of corpses. What can you do about it, my poor friend? ~ Blaise Cendrars, #NFDB
229:The conscious perception of a taste can be referred to as a quale, a singular sensation, such as when licking table salt. Yet the taste qualia we experience are actually comprised of separate attributes. Taste quale may be subdivided into the components of sensory quality (sweet, sour, salty, savory/umami, bitter, and perhaps a few others such as water taste, malty taste, or mineral taste); intensity (weak to strong); location (such as a bitter taste on the tip of the tongue or a bitter taste on the back of the tongue); and temporal dynamics (a short-lived taste or a lingering aftertaste). These features of taste are typically combined in the brain with a food’s other oral sensory and olfactory properties to create its flavor, to help us identify and recognize the food, to help reassure us that what we are experiencing is edible, and to create an association with how we feel after eating so that we can recognize the food at our next encounter and remember whether it was satisfying or made us sick. ~ David J Linden, #NFDB
230:Orchids are considered the most highly evolved flowering plants on earth. They are unusual in form, uncommonly beautiful in color, often powerfully fragrant, intricate in structure, and different from any other family of plants. The reason for their unusualness has always been puzzled over. One guess is that orchids might have evolved in soil that was naturally irradiated by a meteor or mineral deposit, and that the radiation is what mutated them into thousands of amazing forms... In 1678 the botanist Jakob Breyne wrote: "The manifold shape of these flowers arouses our highest admiration. They take on the form of little birds, of lizards, of insects. They look like a man, like a woman, sometimes like an austere, sinister figure, sometimes like a clown who excites our laughter. They represent the image of a lazy tortoise, a melancholy toad, an agile, ever-chattering monkey." Orchids have always been thought of as beautiful but strange. A wildflower guide published in 1917 called them "our queer freaks. ~ Susan Orlean, #NFDB
231:ON the beach at night alone,
As the old mother sways her to and fro, singing her husky song,
As I watch the bright stars shining—I think a thought of the clef of the universes, and of the future.
A VAST SIMILITUDE interlocks all,
All spheres, grown, ungrown, small, large, suns, moons, planets, comets, asteroids,
All the substances of the same, and all that is spiritual upon the same,
All distances of place, however wide,
All distances of time—all inanimate forms,
All Souls—all living bodies, though they be ever so different, or in different worlds,
All gaseous, watery, vegetable, mineral processes—the fishes, the brutes,
All men and women—me also;
All nations, colors, barbarisms, civilizations, languages;
All identities that have existed, or may exist, on this globe, or any globe;
All lives and deaths—all of the past, present, future;
This vast similitude spans them, and always has spann'd, and shall forever span them, and compactly hold them, and enclose them. ~ Walt Whitman,#NFDB
232:The old man might have been drunk, but he was right. Outsiders have robbed and exploited the people of the Congo ever since the days of the first European and Arab slavers. The territory that Stanley staked in the name of Leopold witnessed what many regard as the first genocide of the modern era, when millions of Congolese were effectively worked to death trying to meet the colonialists’ almost insatiable demand for resources, most notably rubber. And since independence, foreign powers have toyed with the Congo, stripping its mineral assets and exploiting its strategic position, never mindful of the suffering inflicted on its people. And that really was the point. At every stage of its bloody history, outsiders have tended to treat Congolese as somehow sub-human, not worthy of the consideration they would expect for themselves. For progress to be made, outsiders must treat Congolese as equals and they could do worse than follow the example of an amazing white woman I discovered after we got back to Kalemie. ~ Tim Butcher, #NFDB
233:In Memoriam Mae Noblitt
This is just a place:
we go around, distanced,
yearly in a star's
atmosphere, turning
daily into and out of
direct light and
slanting through the
quadrant seasons: deep
space begins at our
heels, nearly rousing
us loose: we look up
or out so high, sight's
silk almost draws us away:
this is just a place:
currents worry themselves
coiled and free in airs
and oceans: water picks
up mineral shadow and
plasm into billions of
designs, frames: trees,
grains, bacteria: but
is love a reality we
made here ourselves-and grief--did we design
that--or do these,
like currents, whine
in and out among us merely
as we arrive and go:
this is just a place:
the reality we agree with,
31
that agrees with us,
outbounding this, arrives
to touch, joining with
us from far away:
our home which defines
us is elsewhere but not
so far away we have
forgotten it:
this is just a place.
~ Archie Randolph Ammons,#NFDB
234:I am an evolutionist. I believe my great backyard Sphexes have evolved like other creatures. But watching them in the October light as one circles my head in curiosity, I can only repeat my dictum softly: in the world there is nothing to explain the world. Nothing to explain the necessity of life, nothing to explain the hunger of the elements to become life, nothing to explain why the stolid realm of rock and soil and mineral should diversify itself into beauty, terror, and uncertainty. To bring organic novelty into existence, to create pain, injustice, joy, demands more than we can discern in the nature that we analyze so completely. Worship, then, like the Maya, the unknown zero, the procession of the time-bearing gods. The equation that can explain why a mere Sphex wasp contains in its minute head the ganglionic centers of its prey has still to be written. In the world there is nothing below a certain depth that is truly explanatory. It is as if matter dreamed and muttered in its sleep. But why, and for what reason it dreams, there is no evidence. ~ Loren Eiseley, #NFDB
235:Ideally, a fair and equitable society would regulate debt in line with the ability to be paid without pushing economies into depression. But when shrinking markets deepen fiscal deficits, creditors demand that governments balance their budgets by selling public monopolies. Once the land, water and mineral rights are privatized, along with transportation, communications, lotteries and other monopolies, the next aim is to block governments from regulating their prices or taxing financial and rentier wealth. The neo-rentier objective is threefold: to reduce economies to debt dependency, to transfer public utilities into creditor hands, and then to create a rent-extracting tollbooth economy. The financial objective is to block governments from writing down debts when bankers and bondholders over-lend. Taken together, these policies create a one-sided freedom for rentiers to create a travesty of the classical “Adam Smith” view of free markets. It is a freedom to reduce the indebted majority to a state of deepening dependency, and to gain wealth by stripping public assets built up over the centuries. ~ Michael Hudson, #NFDB
236:[In Montana at the fenced US-Canada Border]
Not for the first time I am forced to contemplate the melancholy truth that, in one significant way at least, Al-Qaeda has won. Its victory in the interior of the United States may not be complete, but it is enough. Through one outrageous and atrocious act and the credible threat of more, they hage ensured that America's freedom and conveniences have been unprecendently curtailed. Queuing up for security checks in every international amd domestic airport, having one's sun-cream, nail scissors amd mineral water binned and one's patience worn down, these are minor but palpable victories. No one spdays say it in the queues as they build and build, it would be considered unpatriotic. That fact, that the truth itself is now unlatriotic, that too is a victory, Al Qaeda have cost the US and its citizens unbillilns in tkme and manpower, in incinvenience and stress. And along with the thousands and thousands of miles of international borders, they are costing American tax-payers billions more. New helicopters, thousands of new recruits. The bill is incaculable. ~ Stephen Fry,#NFDB
237:Rububiyyah: Lordship, the quality of being a lord. A term derived from the Qur'anic
descriptions of Allah's lordship over creation. One might say the ecology of natural existence.
It is an essential element in Sufic cosmology and is a most sophisticated concept which
surpasses the crude specificity and mechanistic views of evolutionist biology. It is an energy
system of relationships in constant change and altering dynamics. It functions through the
different realms, the atomic, the mineral, the plant, and so on. It relates the levels of living
organisms from the uni-cellular up to man, and the interpenetrations of organism and
environment. It re-defines "event" from crude historicity to a picture of organism/event in a
unified field. It is the underlying concept which allows us to abandon the dead mind/body
split of the dying culture. It permits us to utilize and develop the energy concepts of
Islamic/Chinese medicine - which hold a common energy concept at base. Rububiyya permits
us to observe ONE PROCESS at work throughout every level of the creational realities. ~ Ibn Arabi,#NFDB
238:How could a large land empire thrive and dominate in the modern world without reliable access to world markets and without much recourse to naval power?
Stalin and Hitler had arrived at the same basic answer to this fundamental question. The state must be large in territory and self-sufficient in economics, with a balance between industry and agriculture that supported a hardily conformist and ideologically motivated citizenry capable of fulfilling historical prophecies - either Stalinist internal industrialization or Nazi colonial agrarianism. Both Hitler and Stalin aimed at imperial autarky, within a large land empire well supplies in food, raw materials, and mineral resources. Both understood the flash appeal of modern materials: Stalin had named himself after steel, and Hitler paid special attention to is production. Yet both Stalin and Hitler understood agriculture as a key element in the completion of their revolutions. Both believed that their systems would prove their superiority to decadent capitalism, and guarantee independence from the rest of the world, by the production of food.
p. 158 ~ Timothy Snyder,#NFDB
239:Sojourns In The Parallel World
We live our lives of human passions,
cruelties, dreams, concepts,
crimes and the exercise of virtue
in and beside a world devoid
of our preoccupations, free
from apprehension--though affected,
certainly, by our actions. A world
parallel to our own though overlapping.
We call it "Nature"; only reluctantly
admitting ourselves to be "Nature" too.
Whenever we lose track of our own obsessions,
our self-concerns, because we drift for a minute,
an hour even, of pure (almost pure)
response to that insouciant life:
cloud, bird, fox, the flow of light, the dancing
pilgrimage of water, vast stillness
of spellbound ephemerae on a lit windowpane,
animal voices, mineral hum, wind
conversing with rain, ocean with rock, stuttering
of fire to coal--then something tethered
in us, hobbled like a donkey on its patch
of gnawed grass and thistles, breaks free.
No one discovers
just where we've been, when we're caught up again
into our own sphere (where we must
return, indeed, to evolve our destinies)
--but we have changed, a little.
~ Denise Levertov,#NFDB
240:I know my time, which is obscure, silent and brief For I am present without warning one night only. When sun rises on the brass valleys I become serpent. Though I show my true self only in the dark and to no man (For I appear by day as serpent) I belong neither to night nor day. Sun and city never see my deep white bell Or know my timeless moment of void: There is no reply to my munificence. When I come I lift my sudden Eucharist Out of the earth's unfathomable joy Clean and total I obey the world's body I am intricate and whole, not art but wrought passion Excellent deep pleasure of essential waters Holiness of form and mineral mirth: I am the extreme purity of virginal thirst. I neither show my truth nor conceal it My innocence is described dimly Only by divine gift As a white cavern without explanation. He who sees my purity Dares not speak of it. When I open once for all my impeccable bell No one questions my silence: The all-knowing bird of night flies out of my mouth. Have you seen it? Then though my mirth has quickly ended You live forever in its echo: You will never be the same again. [1499.jpg] -- from Selected Poems of Thomas Merton, by Thomas Merton
~ Thomas Merton, Night-Flowering Cactus
,#NFDB
241:The Eye
To E. E. Cummings
I see the horses and the sad streets
Of my childhood in an agate eye
Roving, under the clean sheets,
Over a black hole in the sky.
The ill man becomes the child,
The evil man becomes the lover;
The natural man with evil roiled
Pulls down the sphereless sky for cover.
I see the gray heroes and the graves
Of my childhood in the nuclear eyeHorizons spent in dun caves
Sucked down into the sinking sky.
The happy child becomes the man,
The elegant man becomes the mind,
The fathered gentleman who can
Perform quick feats of gentle kind.
I see the long field and the noon
Of my childhood in the carbolic eye,
Dissolving pupil of the moon
Seared from the raveled hole of the sky.
The nice ladies and gentlemen,
The teaser and the jelly-bean
Play cockalorum-and-the-hen,
When the cool afternoons pour green:
I see the father and the cooling cup
Of my childhood in the swallowing sky
Down, down, until down is up
And there is nothing in the eye,
Shut shutter of the mineral man
Who takes the fatherless dark to bed,
88
The acid sky to the brain-pan;
And calls the crows to peck his head.
~ Allen Tate,#NFDB
242:Two years of Newtrition investment and research had produced CHOW™. CHOW™ contained spun, plaited, and woven protein molecules, capped and coded, carefully designed to be ignored by even the most ravenous digestive tract enzymes; no-cal sweeteners; mineral oils replacing vegetable oils; fibrous materials, colorings, and flavorings. The end result was a foodstuff almost indistinguishable from any other except for two things. Firstly, the price, which was slightly higher, and secondly the nutritional content, which was roughly equivalent to that of a Sony Walkman. It didn’t matter how much you ate, you lost weight.* Fat people had bought it. Thin people who didn’t want to get fat had bought it. CHOW™ was the ultimate diet food—carefully spun, woven, textured, and pounded to imitate anything, from potatoes to venison, although the chicken sold best. Sable sat back and watched the money roll in. He watched CHOW™ gradually fill the ecological niche that used to be filled by the old, untrademarked food. He followed CHOW™ with SNACKS™—junk food made from real junk. MEALS™ was Sable’s latest brainwave. MEALS™ was CHOW™ with added sugar and fat. The theory was that if you ate enough MEALS™ you would a) get very fat, and b) die of malnutrition. ~ Terry Pratchett, #NFDB
243:Kekulé dreams the Great Serpent holding its own tail in its mouth, the dreaming Serpent which surrounds the World. But the meanness, the cynicism with which this dream is to be used. The Serpent that announces, "The World is a closed thing, cyclical, resonant, eternally-returning," is to be delivered into a system whose only aim is to violate the Cycle. Taking and not giving back, demanding that "productivity" and "earnings" keep on increasing with time, the System removing from the rest of the World these vast quantities of energy to keep its own tiny desperate fraction showing a profit: and not only most of humanity—most of the World, animal, vegetable, and mineral, is laid waste in the process. The System may or may not understand that it's only buying time. And that time is an artificial resource to begin with, of no value to anyone or anything but the System, which must sooner or later crash to its death, when its addiction to energy has become more than the rest of the World can supply, dragging with it innocent souls all along the chain of life. Living inside the System is like riding across the country in a bus driven by a maniac bent on suicide . . . though he's amiable enough, keeps cracking jokes back through the loudspeaker . . . ~ Thomas Pynchon, #NFDB
244:Though the early growth in Botswana relied on meat exports, things changed dramatically when diamonds were discovered. The management of natural resources in Botswana also differed markedly from that in other African nations. During the colonial period, the Tswana chiefs had attempted to block prospecting for minerals in Bechuanaland because they knew that if Europeans discovered precious metals or stones, their autonomy would be over. The first big diamond discovery was under Ngwato land, Seretse Khama’s traditional homeland. Before the discovery was announced, Khama instigated a change in the law so that all subsoil mineral rights were vested in the nation, not the tribe. This ensured that diamond wealth would not create great inequities in Botswana. It also gave further impetus to the process of state centralization as diamond revenues could now be used for building a state bureaucracy and infrastructure and for investing in education. In Sierra Leone and many other sub-Saharan African nations, diamonds fueled conflict between different groups and helped to sustain civil wars, earning the label Blood Diamonds for the carnage brought about by the wars fought over their control. In Botswana, diamond revenues were managed for the good of the nation. ~ Daron Acemo lu, #NFDB
245:Sometimes it was exhilaratingly easy to be happy again. Other times they found that they did have to “try,” and the trying seemed stupid and pointless and Alice would wake up in the middle of the night thinking of all the times Nick had hurt her and wondering why she hadn’t stayed with Dominick. But then there were the other times, unexpected quiet moments, where they’d catch each other’s eyes, and all the years of hurt and joy, bad times and good times, seemed to fuse into a feeling that she knew was so much stronger, more complex and real, than any of those fledgling feelings for Dominick, or even the love she’d first felt for Nick in those early years. She had always thought that exquisitely happy time at the beginning of her relationship with Nick was the ultimate, the feeling they’d always be trying to replicate, to get back, but now she realized that was wrong. That was like comparing sparkling mineral water to French champagne. Early love is exciting and exhilarating. It’s light and bubbly. Anyone can love like that. But love after three children, after a separation and a near-divorce, after you’ve hurt each other and forgiven each other, bored each other and surprised each other, after you’ve seen the worst and the best—well, that sort of a love is ineffable. It deserves its own word. ~ Liane Moriarty, #NFDB
246:NOURISHING TRADITIONAL FOODS Proteins: Fresh, pasture-raised meat including beef, lamb, game, chicken, turkey, duck and other fowl; organ meats from pastured animals; seafood of all types from deep sea waters; fresh shellfish in season; fish eggs; fresh eggs from pastured poultry; organic fermented soy products in small amounts. Fats: Fresh butter and cream from pasture-fed cows, preferably raw and cultured; lard and beef, lamb, goose and duck fat from pastured animals; extra virgin olive oil; unrefined flax seed oil in small amounts; coconut oil and palm oil. Dairy: Raw, whole milk and cultured dairy products, such as yoghurt, piima milk, kefir and raw cheese, from traditional breeds of pasture-fed cows and goats. Carbohydrates: Organic whole grain products properly treated for the removal of phytates, such as sourdough and sprouted grain bread and soaked or sprouted cereal grains; soaked and fermented legumes including lentils, beans, and chickpeas; sprouted or soaked seeds and nuts; fresh fruits and vegetables, both raw and cooked; fermented vegetables. Beverages: Filtered, high-mineral water; lacto-fermented drinks made from grain or fruit; meat stocks and vegetable broths. Condiments: Unrefined sea salt; raw vinegar; spices in moderation; fresh herbs; naturally fermented soy sauce and fish sauce. ~ Sally Fallon Morell, #NFDB
247:I was hoping to be able to get into the Queen's Chamber while I was in Egypt in 1986 to get a sample of the salt for analysis. I had speculated that the salt on the walls of the chamber was an unwanted, though significant, residual substance caused by a chemical reaction where hot hydrogen reacted with the limestone. Unfortunately, I was unable to get into the chamber because a French team was already inside the Horizontal Passage, boring holes into what they hoped were additional chambers. (It was discovered, after I left Egypt, that the spaces contained only sand.)
As it turned out, my research would have been redundant. Noone reported in his book that another individual had already had the same idea and done the work. In 1978, Dr. Patrick Flanagan asked the Arizona Bureau of Geology and Mineral Technology to analyze a sample of this salt. They found it to be a mixture of calcium carbonate (limestone), sodium chloride (halite or salt), and calcium sulfate (gypsum, also known as plaster of paris). These are precisely the minerals that would be produced by the reaction of hot, hydrogen-bearing gas with the limestone walls and ceiling of the Queen's Chamber.
[...]
The interior chambers of the Great Pyramid have the appearance of being subjected to extreme temperatures; and [...] the broken corner on the granite box shows signs of being melted, rather than simply being chipped away. ~ Christopher Dunn,#NFDB
248:You love the sea, don’t you, Captain?”“Yes, I love it! The sea is everything. It covers seven-tenths of the globe. Its breath is pure and healthy. It is an immense desert where a man is never alone, for he can feel life quivering all about him. The sea is only a receptacle for all the prodigious, supernatural things that exist inside it; it is only movement and love; it is the living infinite, as one of your poets has said. And in fact, Professor, it contains the three kingdoms of nature—mineral, vegetable and animal. This last is well represented by the four groups of zoophytes, by the three classes of articulata, by the five classes of mollusks, by three classes of vertebrates, mammals and reptiles, and those innumerable legions of fish, that infinite order of animals which includes more than thirteen thousand species, only one-tenth of which live in fresh water. The sea is a vast reservoir of nature. The world, so to speak, began with the sea, and who knows but that it will also end in the sea! There lies supreme tranquillity. The sea does not belong to tyrants. On its surface, they can still exercise their iniquitous rights, fighting, destroying one another and indulging in their other earthly horrors. But thirty feet below its surface their power ceases, their influence dies out and their domination disappears! Ah, Monsieur, one must live—live within the ocean! Only there can one be independent! Only there do I have no master! There I am free! ~ Jules Verne, #NFDB
249:Freshly ground cereals were used for breads and gruels. Bone marrow was included in stews. Liver and a liberal supply of whole milk, green vegetables and fruits were provided. In addition, he was provided with a butter that was very high in vitamins having been produced by cows fed on a rapidly growing green grass. The best source for this is a pasturage of wheat and rye grass. All green grass in a state of rapid growth is good, although wheat and rye grass are the best found. Unless hay is carefully dried so as to retain its chlorophyll, which is a precursor of vitamin A, the cow cannot synthesize the fatsoluble vitamins. These two practical cases illustrate the fundamental necessity that there shall not only be an adequate quantity of body-building minerals present, but also that there shall be an adequate quantity of fat-soluble vitamins. Of course, water-soluble vitamins are also essential. While I have reduced the diets of the various primitive races studied to definite quantities of mineral and calorie content, these data are so voluminous that it will not be appropriate to include them here. It will be more informative to discuss the ratios of both body-building and repairing material in the several primitive dietaries, in comparison with the displacing foods adopted from our modern civilization. The amount of food eaten by an individual is controlled primarily by the hunger factor which for our modernized groups apparently relates only to need for heat and energy ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
250:On rainy afternoons, embroidering with a group of friends on the begonia porch, she would lose the thread of the conversation and a tear of nostalgia would salt her palate when she saw the strips of damp earth and the piles of mud that the earthworms had pushed up in the garden. Those secret tastes, defeated in the past by oranges and rhubarb, broke out into an irrepressible urge when she began to weep. She went back to eating earth. The first time she did it almost out of curiosity, sure that the bad taste would be the best cure for the temptation. And, in fact, she could not bear the earth in her mouth. But she persevered, overcome by the growing anxiety, and little by little she was getting back her ancestral appetite, the taste of primary minerals, the unbridled satisfaction of what was the original food. She would put handfuls of earth in her pockets, and ate them in small bits without being seen, with a confused feeling of pleasure and rage, as she instructed her girl friends in the most difficult needlepoint and spoke about other men, who did not deserve the sacrifice of having one eat the whitewash on the walls because of them. The handfuls of earth made the only man who deserved that show of degradation less remote and more certain, as if the ground that he walked on with his fine patent leather boots in another part of the world were transmitting to her the weight and the temperature of his blood in a mineral savor that left a harsh aftertaste in her mouth and a sediment of peace in her heart. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
251:LYING WARS The war in Iraq grew out of the need to correct an error made by Geography when she put the West’s oil under the East’s sand. But no war is honest enough to confess: “I kill to steal.” “The devil’s shit,” as oil is called by its victims, has caused many wars and will certainly cause many more. In Sudan, for instance, a huge number of people lost their lives between the final years of the twentieth century and the first years of the twenty-first, in an oil war that disguised itself as an ethnic and religious conflict. Derricks and drills, pipes and pipelines sprouted as if by magic in villages turned to ashes and in fields of ruined crops. In the Darfur region, where the butchery continues, the people, all Muslim, began to hate each other when they discovered there might be oil under their feet. The killing in the hills of Rwanda also claimed to be an ethnic and religious war, even though killers and killed were all Catholics. Hatred, a colonial legacy, stemmed from the time when Belgium decreed that those who raised cattle were Tutsis and those who grew crops were Hutus, and that the Tutsi minority ought to dominate the Hutu majority. In recent years, another multitude lost their lives in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the service of foreign companies fighting over coltan. That rare mineral is an essential ingredient in cell phones, computers, microchips, and batteries, all of which are staples of the mass media. The media, however, forgot to mention coltan in their scant coverage of the war. ~ Eduardo Galeano, #NFDB
252:You know, back in the forty-niner days, every gold mining town in California had a nerd with a scale,” Avi says. “The assayer. He sat in an office all day. Scary-looking rednecks came in with pouches of gold dust. The nerd weighed them, checked them for purity, told them what the stuff was worth. Basically, the assayer’s scale was the exchange point—the place where this mineral, this dirt from the ground, became money that would be recognized as such in any bank or marketplace in the world, from San Francisco to London to Beijing. Because of the nerd’s special knowledge, he could put his imprimatur on dirt and make it money. Just like we have the power to turn bits into money. “Now, a lot of the people the nerd dealt with were incredibly bad guys. Peg house habitues. Escaped convicts from all over the world. Psychotic gunslingers. People who owned slaves and massacred Indians. I’ll bet that the first day, or week, or month, or year, that the nerd moved to the gold-mining town and hung out his shingle, he was probably scared shitless. He probably had moral qualms too—very legitimate ones, perhaps,” Avi adds, giving Randy a sidelong glance. “Some of those pioneering nerds probably gave up and went back East. But y’know what? In a surprisingly short period of time, everything became pretty damn civilized, and the towns filled up with churches and schools and universities, and the sort of howling maniacs who got there first were all assimilated or driven out or thrown into prison, and the nerds had boulevards and opera houses named after them. Now, is the analogy clear? ~ Neal Stephenson, #NFDB
253:Just as the individual is not alone in the group, nor any one society alone among the others, so man is not alone in the universe. When the spectrum or rainbow of human cultures has finally sunk into the void created by our frenzy; as long as we continue to exist and there is a world, that tenuous arch linking us to the inaccessible will still remain, to show us the opposite course to that leading to enslavement; many may be unable to follow it, but its contemplation affords him the only privilege of which he can make himself worthy; that of arresting the process, of controlling the impulse which forces him to block up the cracks in the wall of necessity one by one and to complete his work at the same time as he shuts himself up within his prison; this is a privilege coveted by every society, whatever its beliefs, its political system or its level of civilization; a privilege to which it attaches its leisure, its pleasure, its peace of mind and its freedom; the possibility, vital for life, of unhitching, which consists - Oh! fond farewell to savages and explorations! - in grasping, during the brief intervals in which our species can bring itself to interrupt its hive-like activity, the essence of what it was and continues to be, below the threshold of thought and over and above society: in the contemplation of a mineral more beautiful than all our creations; in the scent that can be smelt at the heart of a lily and is more imbued with learning than all our books; or in the brief glance, heavy with patience, serenity and mutual forgiveness, that, through some involuntary understanding, one can sometimes exchange with a cat. ~ Claude L vi Strauss, #NFDB
254:This place is a dream. Only a sleeper considers it real. Then death comes like dawn, and you wake up laughing at what you thought was your grief. But there’s a difference with this dream. Everything cruel and unconscious done in the illusion of the present world, all that does not fade away at the death-waking. It stays, and it must be interpreted. All the mean laughing, all the quick, sexual wanting, those torn coats of Joseph, they change into powerful wolves that you must face. The retaliation that sometimes comes now, the swift, payback hit, is just a boy’s game to what the other will be. You know about circumcision here. It’s full castration there! And this groggy time we live, this is what it’s like: A man goes to sleep in the town where he has always lived, and he dreams he’s living in another town. In the dream, he doesn’t remember the town he’s sleeping in his bed in. He believes the reality of the dream town. The world is that kind of sleep. The dust of many crumbled cities settles over us like a forgetful doze, but we are older than those cities. We began as a mineral. We emerged into plant life and into the animal state, and then into being human, and always we have forgotten our former states, except in early spring when we slightly recall being green again. That’s how a young person turns toward a teacher. That’s how a baby leans toward the breast, without knowing the secret of its desire, yet turning instinctively. Humankind is being led along an evolving course, through this migration of intelligences, and though we seem to be sleeping, there is an inner wakefulness that directs the dream, and that will eventually startle us back to the truth of who we are. ~ Rumi, #NFDB
255:It’s a geode. You can sess that, the way the rock around you abruptly changes to something else. The pebble in the stream, the warp in the weft; countless aeons ago a bubble formed in a flow of molten mineral within Father Earth. Within that pocket, nurtured by incomprehensible pressures and bathed in water and fire, crystals grew. This one’s the size of a city. Which is probably why someone built a city in this one. You stand before a vast, vaulted cavern that is full of glowing crystal shafts the size of tree trunks. Big tree trunks. Or buildings. Big buildings. They jut forth from the walls in an utterly haphazard jumble: different lengths, different circumferences, some white and translucent and a few smoky or tinged with purple. Some are stubby, their pointed tips ending only a few feet away from the walls that grew them—but many stretch from one side of the vast cavern into the indistinct distance. They form struts and roads too steep to climb, going in directions that make no sense. It is as if someone found an architect, made her build a city out of the most beautiful materials available, then threw all those buildings into a box and jumbled them up for laughs. And they’re definitely living in it. As you stare, you notice narrow rope bridges and wooden platforms everywhere. There are dangling lines strung with electric lanterns, ropes and pulleys carrying small lifts from one platform to another. In the distance a man walks down a wooden stairway built around a titanic slanted column of white; two children play on the ground far below, in between stubby crystals the size of houses. Actually, some of the crystals are houses. They have holes cut in them—doors and windows. You can see people moving around inside some of them. Smoke curls from chimney holes cut in pointed crystal tips. ~ N K Jemisin, #NFDB
256:The instant that Devon stepped off the train at Alton Station, he was confronted by the sight of his brother in a dusty coat and mud-crusted breeches and boots. There was a wild look in West’s eyes.
“West?” Devon asked in startled concern. “What the devil--”
“Did you sign the lease?” West interrupted, reaching out as if to seize his lapels, then appearing to think better of it. He was twitching with impatience, bouncing on his heels like a restless schoolboy. “The London Ironstone lease. Did you sign it?”
“Yesterday.”
West let out a curse that attracted a slew of censorious gazes from the crowd on the platform. “What of the mineral rights?”
“The mineral rights on the land we’re leasing to the railway?” Devon clarified.
“Yes, did you give them to Severin? Any of them?”
“I kept all of them.”
West stared at him without blinking. “You’re absolutely sure?”
“Of course I am. Severin badgered me about the mineral rights for three days. The longer we debated, the more exasperated I became, until I said I’d see him in hell before I let him have so much as a clod of manure from Eversby Priory. I walked out, but just as I reached the street, he shouted from the fifth-floor window that he gave in and I should come back.”
West leaped forward as if he were about to embrace him, then checked the movement. He shook Devon’s hand violently and proceeded to thump his back with painful vigor. “By God, I love you, you pigheaded bastard!”
“What the devil is wrong with you?” Devon demanded.
“I’ll show you. Let’s go.”
“I have to wait for Sutton. He’s in one of the back carriages.”
“We don’t need Sutton.”
“He can’t walk to Eversby from Alton,” Devon said, his annoyance fading into laughter. “Damn it, West, you’re jumping about as if someone shoved a hornet’s nest up your--”
“There he is,” West exclaimed, gesturing to the valet, motioning for him to hurry. ~ Lisa Kleypas,#NFDB
257:THE DREAM THAT MUST BE INTERPRETED
This place is a dream.
Only a sleeper considers it real.
Then death comes like dawn,
and you wake up laughing
at what you thought was your grief.
But there's a difference with this dream.
Everything cruel and unconscious
done in the illusion of the present world,
all that does not fade away at the death-waking.
It stays,
and it must be interpreted.
All the mean laughing,
all the quick, sexual wanting,
those torn coats of Joseph,
they change into powerful wolves
that you must face.
The retaliation that sometimes comes now,
the swift, payback hit,
is just a boy's game
to what the other will be.
You know about circumcision here.
It's full castration there!
And this groggy time we live,
this is what it's like:
A man goes to sleep in the town
where he has always lived, and he dreams he's living
in another town.
In the dream, he doesn't remember
the town he's sleeping in his bed in. He believes
the reality of the dream town.
The world is that kind of sleep.
The dust of many crumbled cities
settles over us like a forgetful doze,
but we are older than those cities.
We began
as a mineral. We emerged into plant life
and into animal state, and then into being human,
and always we have forgotten our former states,
except in early spring when we slightly recall
being green again.
That's how a young person turns
toward a teacher. That's how a baby leans
toward the breast, without knowing the secret
of its desire, yet turning instinctively.
Humankind is being led along an evolving course,
through this migration of intelligences,
and though we seem to be sleeping,
there is an inner wakefulness
that directs the dream,
and that will eventually startle us back
to the truth of who we are. ~ Rumi,#NFDB
258:Se quedan un momento inmóviles y en silencio, mirándose, hasta que Wenceslao sacude la cabeza en dirección al cordero y dice:
—Lo despenamos y en paz.
Más adelante será una res roja, vacía, colgando de un gancho, después se dorará despacio al fuego de las brasas, sobre la parrilla, al lado del horno, después será servido en pedazos sobre las fuentes de loza cachada, repartido, devorado, hasta que queden los huesos todavía jugosos, llenos de filamentos a medio masticar que los perros recogerán al vuelo con un tarascón rápido y seguro y enterrarán en algún lugar del campo al que regresarán en los momentos de hambruna y comenzarán a roer tranquilos y empecinados sosteniéndolos con las patas delanteras e inclinando de costado la cabeza para morder mejor, dando tirones cortos y enérgicos, hasta dejarlos hechos unas láminas o unos cilindros duros y resecos que los niños dispersarán, pateándolos o recogiéndolos para tirárselos entre ellos en los mediodías calcinados en que atravesarán el campo para comprar soda y vino en el almacén de Berini, objetos ya irreconocibles que quedarán semienterrados y ocultos por los yuyos en diferentes puntos del campo durante un tiempo incalculable, indefinido, en el que arados, lluvias, excavaciones, cataclismos, la palpitación de la tierra que se mueve continua bajo la apariencia del reposo, los pasearán del interior a la superficie, de la superficie al interior, cada vez más despedazados, más irreconocibles, hechos fragmentos, pulverizados, flotando impalpables en el aire o petrificados en la tierra, sustancia de todos los reinos tragada incesantemente por la tierra o incesantemente vuelta a vomitar, viajando por todos los reinos —vegetal, animal, mineral— y cristalizando en muchas formas diferentes y posibles, incluso en la de otros corderos, incluso en la de infinitos corderos, menos en la de ese cordero hacia el que ahora se dirige Wenceslao llevando el cuchillo y la palangana. ~ Juan Jos Saer,#NFDB
259:This life is a hospital in which each patient is possessed by the desire to change beds. One wants to suffer in front of the stove and another believes that he will get well near the window.
It always seems to me that I will be better off there where I am not, and this question of moving about is one that I discuss endlessly with my soul
"Tell me, my soul, my poor chilled soul, what would you think about going to live in Lisbon? It must be warm there, and you'll be able to soak up the sun like a lizard there. That city is on the shore; they say that it is built all out of marble, and that the people there have such a hatred of the vegetable, that they tear down all the trees. There's a country after your own heart -- a landscape made out of light and mineral, and liquid to reflect them!"
My soul does not reply.
"Because you love rest so much, combined with the spectacle of movement, do you want to come and live in Holland, that beatifying land? Perhaps you will be entertained in that country whose image you have so often admired in museums. What do you think of Rotterdam, you who love forests of masts and ships anchored at the foot of houses?"
My soul remains mute.
"Does Batavia please you more, perhaps? There we would find, after all, the European spirit married to tropical beauty."
Not a word. -- Is my soul dead?
Have you then reached such a degree of torpor that you are only happy with your illness? If that's the case, let us flee toward lands that are the analogies of Death. -- I've got it, poor soul! We'll pack our bags for Torneo. Let's go even further, to the far end of the Baltic. Even further from life if that is possible: let's go live at the pole. There the sun only grazes the earth obliquely, and the slow alternation of light and darkness suppresses variety and augments monotony, that half of nothingness. There we could take long baths in the shadows, while, to entertain us, the aurora borealis send us from time to time its pink sheaf of sparkling light, like the reflection of fireworks in Hell!"
Finally, my soul explodes, and wisely she shrieks at me: "It doesn't matter where! It doesn't matter where! As long as it's out of this world! ~ Charles Baudelaire,#NFDB
260:Immediately when you arrive in Sahara, for the first or the tenth time, you notice the stillness. An incredible, absolute silence prevails outside the towns; and within, even in busy places like the markets, there is a hushed quality in the air, as if the quiet were a conscious force which, resenting the intrusion of sound, minimizes and disperses sound straightaway. Then there is the sky, compared to which all other skies seem fainthearted efforts. Solid and luminous, it is always the focal point of the landscape. At sunset, the precise, curved shadow of the earth rises into it swiftly from the horizon, cutting into light section and dark section. When all daylight is gone, and the space is thick with stars, it is still of an intense and burning blue, darkest directly overhead and paling toward the earth, so that the night never really goes dark.
You leave the gate of the fort or town behind, pass the camels lying outside, go up into the dunes, or out onto the hard, stony plain and stand awhile alone. Presently, you will either shiver and hurry back inside the walls, or you will go on standing there and let something very peculiar happen to you, something that everyone who lives there has undergone and which the French call 'le bapteme de solitude.' It is a unique sensation, and it has nothing to do with loneliness, for loneliness presupposes memory. Here in this wholly mineral landscape lighted by stars like flares, even memory disappears...A strange, and by no means pleasant, process of reintergration begins inside you, and you have the choice of fighting against it, and insisting on remaining the person you have always been, or letting it take its course. For no one who has stayed in the Sahara for a while is quite the same as when he came.
...Perhaps the logical question to ask at this point is: Why go? The answer is that when a man has been there and undergone the baptism of solitude he can't help himself. Once he has been under the spell of the vast luminous, silent country, no other place is quite strong enough for him, no other surroundings can provide the supremely satisfying sensation of existing in the midst of something that is absolute. He will go back, whatever the cost in time or money, for the absolute has no price. ~ Paul Bowles,#NFDB
261:Let’s say a man really loves a woman; he sees her as his equal, his ally, his colleague; but she enters this other realm and becomes unfathomable. In the krypton spotlight, which he doesn’t even see, she falls ill, out of his caste, and turns into an untouchable. He may know her as confident; she stands on the bathroom scale and sinks into a keening of self-abuse. He knows her as mature; she comes home with a failed haircut, weeping from a vexation she is ashamed even to express. He knows her as prudent; she goes without winter boots because she spent half a week’s paycheck on artfully packaged mineral oil. He knows her as sharing his love of the country; she refuses to go with him to the seaside until her springtime fast is ended. She’s convivial; but she rudely refuses a slice of birthday cake, only to devour the ruins of anything at all in a frigid light at dawn. Nothing he can say about this is right. He can’t speak. Whatever he says hurts her more. If he comforts her by calling the issue trivial, he doesn’t understand. It isn’t trivial at all. If he agrees with her that it’s serious, even worse: He can’t possibly love her, he thinks she’s fat and ugly. If he says he loves her just as she is, worse still: He doesn’t think she’s beautiful. If he lets her know that he loves her because she’s beautiful, worst of all, though she can’t talk about this to anyone. That is supposed to be what she wants most in the world, but it makes her feel bereft, unloved, and alone. He is witnessing something he cannot possibly understand. The mysteriousness of her behavior keeps safe in his view of his lover a zone of incomprehension. It protects a no-man’s-land, an uninhabitable territory between the sexes, wherever a man and a woman might dare to call a ceasefire. Maybe he throws up his hands. Maybe he grows irritable or condescending. Unless he enjoys the power over her this gives him, he probably gets very bored. So would the woman if the man she loved were trapped inside something so pointless, where nothing she might say could reach him. Even where a woman and a man have managed to build and inhabit that sand castle—an equal relationship—this is the unlistening tide; it ensures that there will remain a tag on the woman that marks her as the same old something else, half child, half savage. ~ Naomi Wolf, #NFDB
262:Sunny New South Wales
We often hear men boast about the land which gave them birth,
And each one thinks his native land the fairest spot on earth;
In beauty, riches, power, no land can his surpass;
To his, all other lands on earth cannot even hold a glass.
Now, if other people have their boasts, then, say, why should not we,
For we can drink our jovial toast and sing with three times three;
For there's not a country in the world where all that's fair prevails
As here it does in this our land, our sunny New South Wales.
Chorus
Then toast with me our happy land,
Where all that's fair prevails,
Our colour's blue and our hearts are true,
In sunny New South Wales.
Now let us take a passing glance at all that we possess.
That ours is such a wealthy land no stranger e'er would guess.
Why, we've land in store, indeed far more than ever we shall require,
And trees grow thick on every side in spite of axe and fire.
Our sheep and cattle millions count, our wool is classed A1;
In beef and mutton our fair land is not to be outdone.
Why, we've lately seen old England, who boasts her stock ne'er fails,
Has had to send for wholsome meat preserved in New South Wales.
Chorus: Then toast with me, &c.
In childhood California was to us a land of gold,
And people said its riches were so vast, immense, untold.
But time has proved that mineral wealth exists not there alone,
For New South Wales possesses gold in many, many a stone.
And when the gold is taken from out its quartzy veins
A heap of silver, copper, tin, as a residue remains.
In fact we are a mass of wealth in all our hills and dales.
There's not a country half as rich as sunny New South Wales.
Chorus: Then toast with me, &c.
Our climate's good, that all admit, our flowers are sweet and rare;
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And scenes abound on every hand so marvellously fair.
Shame on the men who went away and of us wrote such lies.
Why, when Anthony Trollope came out here he nearly lost his eyes.
Our native girls are fair and good, their hearts are pure and true;
And to their colour stick like bricks, the bright Australian blue.
Some never loved a roving life, nor blest the ocean's gales;
But they bless the breeze that blew them to a life in New South Wales.
~ Banjo Paterson,#NFDB
263:Anywhere Out Of The World
This life is a hospital where every patient is possessed with the desire to change
beds; one man would like to
suffer in front of the stove, and another believes that he would recover his health
beside the window.
It always seems to me that I should feel well in the place where I am not, and
this question of removal is one
which I discuss incessantly with my soul.
'Tell me, my soul, poor chilled soul, what do you think of going to live in Lisbon?
It must be warm there, and there
you would invigorate yourself like a lizard. This city is on the sea-shore; they say
that it is built of marble
and that the people there have such a hatred of vegetation that they uproot all
the trees. There you have a landscape
that corresponds to your taste! a landscape made of light and mineral, and liquid
to reflect them!'
My soul does not reply.
'Since you are so fond of stillness, coupled with the show of movement, would
you like to settle in Holland,
that beatifying country? Perhaps you would find some diversion in that land
whose image you have so often admired
in the art galleries. What do you think of Rotterdam, you who love forests of
masts, and ships moored at the foot of
houses?'
My soul remains silent.
'Perhaps Batavia attracts you more? There we should find, amongst other things,
the spirit of Europe
married to tropical beauty.'
Not a word. Could my soul be dead?
'Is it then that you have reached such a degree of lethargy that you acquiesce in
your sickness? If so, let us
flee to lands that are analogues of death. I see how it is, poor soul! We shall pack
our trunks for Tornio. Let us go
farther still to the extreme end of the Baltic; or farther still from life, if that is
possible; let us settle at the Pole. There
the sun only grazes the earth obliquely, and the slow alternation of light and
darkness suppresses variety and
increases monotony, that half-nothingness. There we shall be able to take long
baths of darkness, while for our
amusement the aurora borealis shall send us its rose-coloured rays that are like
23
the reflection of Hell's own
fireworks!'
At last my soul explodes, and wisely cries out to me: 'No matter where! No
matter where! As long as it's out
of the world!'
~ Charles Baudelaire,#NFDB
264:He imagined a town called A. Around the communal fire they’re shaping arrowheads and carving tributes o the god of the hunt. One day some guys with spears come over the ridge, perform all kinds of meanness, take over, and the new guys rename the town B. Whereupon they hang around the communal fire sharpening arrowheads and carving tributes to the god of the hunt. Some climatic tragedy occurs — not carving the correct tributary figurines probably — and the people of B move farther south, where word is there’s good fishing, at least according to those who wander to B just before being cooked for dinner. Another tribe of unlucky souls stops for the night in the emptied village, looks around at the natural defenses provided by the landscape, and decides to stay awhile. It’s a while lot better than their last digs — what with the lack of roving tigers and such — plus it comes with all the original fixtures. they call the place C, after their elder, who has learned that pretending to talk to spirits is a fun gag that gets you stuff. Time passes. More invasions, more recaptures, D, E, F, and G. H stands as it is for a while. That ridge provides some protection from the spring floods, and if you keep a sentry up there you can see the enemy coming for miles. Who wouldn’t want to park themselves in that real estate? The citizens of H leave behind cool totems eventually toppled by the people of I, whose lack of aesthetic sense if made up for by military acumen. J, K, L, adventures in thatched roofing, some guys with funny religions from the eastern plains, long-haired freaks from colder climes, the town is burned to the ground and rebuilt by still more fugitives. This is the march of history. And conquest and false hope. M falls to plague, N to natural disaster — same climatic tragedy as before, apparently it’s cyclical. Mineral wealth makes it happen for the O people, and the P people are renowned for their basket weaving. No one ever — ever — mentions Q. The dictator names the city after himself; his name starts with the letter R. When the socialists come to power they spend a lot of time painting over his face, which is everywhere. They don’t last. Nobody lasts because there’s always somebody else. They all thought they owned it because they named it and that was their undoing. They should have kept the place nameless. They should have been glad for their good fortune, and left it at that. X, Y, Z. ~ Colson Whitehead, #NFDB
265:That day in Chartres they had passed through town and watched women kneeling at the edge of the water, pounding clothes against a flat, wooden board. Yves had watched them for a long time. They had wandered up and down the old crooked streets, in the hot sun; Eric remembered a lizard darting across a wall; and everywhere the cathedral pursued them. It is impossible to be in that town and not be in the shadow of those great towers; impossible to find oneself on those plains and not be troubled by that cruel and elegant, dogmatic and pagan presence. The town was full of tourists, with their cameras, their three-quarter coats, bright flowered dresses and shirts, their children, college insignia, Panama hats, sharp, nasal cries, and automobiles crawling like monstrous gleaming bugs over the laming, cobblestoned streets. Tourist buses, from Holland, from Denmark, from Germany, stood in the square before the cathedral. Tow-haired boys and girls, earnest, carrying knapsacks, wearing khaki-colored shorts, with heavy buttocks and thighs, wandered dully through the town. American soldiers, some in uniform, some in civilian clothes, leaned over bridges, entered bistros in strident, uneasy, smiling packs, circled displays of colored post cards, and picked up meretricious mementos, of a sacred character. All of the beauty of the town, all the energy of the plains, and all the power and dignity of the people seemed to have been sucked out of them by the cathedral. It was as though the cathedral demanded, and received, a perpetual, living sacrifice. It towered over the town, more like an affliction than a blessing, and made everything seem, by comparison with itself, wretched and makeshift indeed. The houses in which the people lived did not suggest shelter, or safety. The great shadow which lay over them revealed them as mere doomed bits of wood and mineral, set down in the path of a hurricane which, presently, would blow them into eternity. And this shadow lay heavy on the people, too. They seemed stunted and misshapen; the only color in their faces suggested too much bad wine and too little sun; even the children seemed to have been hatched in a cellar. It was a town like some towns in the American South, frozen in its history as Lot's wife was trapped in salt, and doomed, therefore, as its history, that overwhelming, omnipresent gift of God, could not be questioned, to be the property of the gray, unquestioning mediocre. ~ James Baldwin, #NFDB
266:The Cave Painters
Holding only a handful of rushlight
they pressed deeper into the dark, at a crouch
until the great rock chamber
flowered around them and they stood
in an enormous womb of
flickering light and darklight, a place
to make a start. Raised hands cast flapping shadows
over the sleeker shapes of radiance.
They've left the world of weather and panic
behind them and gone on in, drawing the dark
in their wake, pushing as one pulse
to the core of stone. The pigments mixed in big shells
are crushed ore, petals and pollens, berries
and the binding juices oozed
out of chosen barks. The beasts
begin to take shape from hands and feather-tufts
(soaked in ochre, manganese, madder, mallow white)
stroking the live rock, letting slopes and contours
mould those forms from chance, coaxing
rigid dips and folds and bulges
to lend themselves to necks, bellies, swelling haunches,
a forehead or a twist of horn, tails and manes
curling to a crazy gallop.
Intent and human, they attach
the mineral, vegetable, animal
realms to themselves, inscribing
the one unbroken line
everything depends on, from that
impenetrable centre
to the outer intangibles of light and air, even
the speed of the horse, the bison's fear, the arc
of gentleness that this big-bellied cow
arches over its spindling calf, or the lancing
dance of death that
bristles out of the buck's
struck flank. On this one line they leave
10
a beak-headed human figure of sticks
and one small, chalky, human hand.
We'll never know if they worked in silence
like people praying—the way our monks
illuminated their own dark ages
in cross-hatched rocky cloisters,
where they contrived a binding
labyrinth of lit affinities
to spell out in nature's lace and fable
their mindful, blinding sixth sense
of a god of shadows—or whether (like birds
tracing their great bloodlines over the globe)
they kept a constant gossip up
of praise, encouragement, complaint.
It doesn't matter: we know
they went with guttering rushlight
into the dark; came to terms
with the given world; must have had
—as their hands moved steadily
by spiderlight—one desire
we'd recognise: they would—before going on
beyond this border zone, this nowhere
that is now here—leave something
upright and bright behind them in the dark.
~ Eamon Grennan,#NFDB
267:Ocean Acidification is sometimes referred to as Global Warming's Equally Evil Twin. The irony is intentional and fair enough as far as it goes... No single mechanism explains all the mass extinctions in the record and yet changes in ocean chemistry seem to be a pretty good predictor. Ocean Acidification played a role in at least 2 of the Big Five Extinctions: the End-Permian and the End-Triassic. And quite possibly it was a major factor in a third, the End-Cretaceous. ...Why is ocean acidification so dangerous? The question is tough to answer only because the list of reasons is so long. Depending on how tightly organisms are able to regulate their internal chemistry, acidification may affect such basic processes as metabolism, enzyme activity, and protein function. Because it will change the makeup of microbial communities, it will alter the availability of key nutrients, like iron and nitrogen. For similar reasons, it will change the amount of light that passes through the water, and for somewhat different reasons, it will alter the way sound propagates. (In general, acidification is expected to make the seas noisier.) It seems likely to promote the growth of toxic algae. It will impact photosynthesis—many plant species are apt to benefit from elevated CO2 levels—and it will alter the compounds formed by dissolved metals, in some cases in ways that could be poisonous.
Of the myriad possible impacts, probably the most significant involves the group of creatures known as calcifiers. (The term calcifier applies to any organism that builds a shell or external skeleton or, in the case of plants, a kind of internal scaffolding out of the mineral calcium carbonate.)...
Ocean acidification increases the cost of calcification by reducing the number of carbonate ions available to organisms that build shells or exoskeletons. Imagine trying to build a house while someone keeps stealing your bricks. The more acidified the water, the greater the energy that’s required to complete the necessary steps. At a certain point, the water becomes positively corrosive, and solid calcium carbonate begins to dissolve. This is why the limpets that wander too close to the vents at Castello Aragonese end up with holes in their shells.
According to geologists who work in the area, the vents have been spewing carbon dioxide for at least several hundred years, maybe longer. Any mussel or barnacle or keel worm that can adapt to lower pH in a time frame of centuries presumably already would have done so. “You give them generations on generations to survive in these conditions, and yet they’re not there,” Hall-Spencer observed. ~ Elizabeth Kolbert,#NFDB
268:Kekulé dreams the Great Serpent holding its own tail in its mouth, the dreaming Serpent which surrounds the World. But the meanness, the cynicism with which this dream is to be used. The Serpent that announces, "The World is a closed thing, cyclical, resonant, eternally-returning," is to be delivered into a system whose only aim is to violate the Cycle. Taking and not giving back, demanding that "productivity" and "earnings" keep on increasing with time, the System removing from the rest of the World these vast quantities of energy to keep its own tiny desperate fraction showing a profit: and not only most of humanity—most of the World, animal, vegetable, and mineral, is laid waste in the process. The System may or may not understand that it's only buying time. And that time is an artificial resource to begin with, of no value to anyone or anything but the System, which must sooner or later crash to its death, when its addiction to energy has become more than the rest of the World can supply, dragging with it innocent souls all along the chain of life. Living inside the System is like riding across the country in a bus driven by a maniac bent on suicide . . . though he's amiable enough, keeps cracking jokes back through the loudspeaker . . . on you roll, across a countryside whose light is forever changing--castles, heaps of rock, moons of different shapes and colors come and go. There are stops at odd hours of teh mornings, for reasons that are not announced: you get out to stretch in lime-lit courtyards where the old men sit around the table under enormous eucalyptus trees you can smell in the night, shuffling the ancient decks oily and worn, throwing down swords and cups and trumps major in the tremor of light while behind them the bus is idling, waiting--"passengers will now reclaim their seats" and much as you'd like to stay, right here, learn the game, find your old age around this quiet table, it's no use: he is waiting beside the door of the bus in his pressed uniform, Lord of the Night he is checking your tickets, your ID and travel papers, and it's the wands of enterprise that dominate tonight...as he nods you by, you catch a glimpse of his face, his insane, committed eyes, and you remember then, for a terrible few heartbeats, that of course it will end for you all in blood, in shock, without dignity--but there is meanwhile this trip to be on ... over your own seat, where there ought to be an advertising plaque, is instead a quote from Rilke: "Once, only once..." One of Their favorite slogans. No return, no salvation, no Cycle--that's not what They, nor Their brilliant employee Kekule, have taken the Serpent to mean. ~ Thomas Pynchon, #NFDB
269:What cannot be resolved inside the psyche,” put in the Expedition alienist, Otto Ghloix, “must enter the outside world and become physically, objectively ‘real.’ For example, one who cannot come to terms with the, one must say sinister unknowability of Light, projects an Æther, real in every way, except for its being detectable.” “Seems like an important property to be missing, don’t you think? Puts it in the same class as God, the soul—” “Fairies under mushrooms,” from a heckler somewhere in the group, whom nobody, strangely, seemed quite able to locate. Icelanders, however, had a long tradition of ghostliness that made the Brits appear models of rationalism. Earlier members of the Expedition had visited the great Library of Iceland behind the translucent green walls facing the sunlit sea. Some of these spaces were workshops or mess-halls, some centers of operation, stacked to the top of the great cliff, easily a dozen levels, probably more. Among the library shelves could be found The Book of Iceland Spar, commonly described as “like the Ynglingasaga only different,” containing family histories going back to the first discovery and exploitation of the eponymic mineral up to the present, including a record of each day of this very Expedition now in progress, even of days not yet transpired. “Fortune-telling! Impossible!” “Unless we can allow that certain texts are—” “Outside of time,” suggested one of the Librarians. “Holy Scripture and so forth.” “In a different relation to time anyhow. Perhaps even to be read through, mediated by, a lens of the very sort of calcite which according to rumor you people are up here seeking.” “Another Quest for another damned Magic Crystal. Horsefeathers, I say. Wish I’d known before I signed on. Say, you aren’t one of these Sentient Rocksters, are you?” Mineral consciousness figured even back in that day as a source of jocularity—had they known what was waiting in that category . . . waiting to move against them, grins would have frozen and chuckles turned to dry-throated coughing. “Of course,” said the Librarian, “you’ll find Iceland spar everywhere in the world, often in the neighborhood of zinc, or silver, some of it perfectly good for optical instruments. But up here it’s of the essence, found in no other company but its own. It’s the genuine article, and the sub-structure of reality. The doubling of the Creation, each image clear and believable. . . . And you being mathematical gentlemen, it can hardly have escaped your attention that its curious advent into the world occurred within only a few years of the discovery of Imaginary Numbers, which also provided a doubling of the mathematical Creation. ~ Thomas Pynchon, #NFDB
270:American Indians share a magnificent history — rich in its astounding diversity, its integrity, its spirituality, its ongoing unique culture and dynamic tradition. It's also rich, I'm saddened to say, in tragedy, deceit, and genocide. Our sovereignty, our nationhood, our very identity — along with our sacred lands — have been stolen from us in one of the great thefts of human history. And I am referring not just to the thefts of previous centuries but to the great thefts that are still being perpetrated upon us today, at this very moment. Our human rights as indigenous peoples are being violated every day of our lives — and by the very same people who loudly and sanctimoniously proclaim to other nations the moral necessity of such rights.
Over the centuries our sacred lands have been repeatedly and routinely stolen from us by the governments and peoples of the United States and Canada. They callously pushed us onto remote reservations on what they thought was worthless wasteland, trying to sweep us under the rug of history. But today, that so-called wasteland has surprisingly become enormously valuable as the relentless technology of white society continues its determined assault on Mother Earth. White society would now like to terminate us as peoples and push us off our reservations so they can steal our remaining mineral and oil resources. It's nothing new for them to steal from nonwhite peoples. When the oppressors succeed with their illegal thefts and depredations, it's called colonialism. When their efforts to colonize indigenous peoples are met with resistance or anything but abject surrender, it's called war. When the colonized peoples attempt to resist their oppression and defend themselves, we're called criminals.
I write this book to bring about a greater understanding of what being an Indian means, of who we are as human beings. We're not quaint curiosities or stereotypical figures in a movie, but ordinary — and, yes, at times, extraordinary — human beings. Just like you. We feel. We bleed. We are born. We die. We aren't stuffed dummies in front of a souvenir shop; we aren't sports mascots for teams like the Redskins or the Indians or the Braves or a thousand others who steal and distort and ridicule our likeness. Imagine if they called their teams the Washington Whiteskins or the Washington Blackskins! Then you'd see a protest! With all else that's been taken from us, we ask that you leave us our name, our self-respect, our sense of belonging to the great human family of which we are all part.
Our voice, our collective voice, our eagle's cry, is just beginning to be heard. We call out to all of humanity. Hear us! ~ Leonard Peltier,#NFDB
271:write animal stories. This one was called Dialogues Between a Cow and a Filly; a meditation on ethics, you might say; it had been inspired by a short business trip to Brittany. Here’s a key passage from it: ‘Let us first consider the Breton cow: all year round she thinks of nothing but grazing, her glossy muzzle ascends and descends with impressive regularity, and no shudder of anguish comes to trouble the wistful gaze of her light-brown eyes. All that is as it ought to be, and even appears to indicate a profound existential oneness, a decidedly enviable identity between her being-in-the-world and her being-in-itself. Alas, in this instance the philosopher is found wanting, and his conclusions, while based on a correct and profound intuition, will be rendered invalid if he has not previously taken the trouble of gathering documentary evidence from the naturalist. In fact the Breton cow’s nature is duplicitous. At certain times of the year (precisely determined by the inexorable functioning of genetic programming) an astonishing revolution takes place in her being. Her mooing becomes more strident, prolonged, its very harmonic texture modified to the point of recalling at times, and astonishingly so, certain groans which escape the sons of men. Her movements become more rapid, more nervous, from time to time she breaks into a trot. It is not simply her muzzle, though it seems, in its glossy regularity, conceived for reflecting the abiding presence of a mineral passivity, which contracts and twitches under the painful effect of an assuredly powerful desire. ‘The key to the riddle is extremely simple, and it is that what the Breton cow desires (thus demonstrating, and she must be given credit here, her life’s one desire) is, as the breeders say in their cynical parlance, “to get stuffed”. And stuff her they do, more or less directly; the artificial insemination syringe can in effect, whatever the cost in certain emotional complications, take the place of the bull’s penis in performing this function. In both cases the cow calms down and returns to her original state of earnest meditation, except that a few months later she will give birth to an adorable little calf. Which, let it be said in passing, means profit for the breeder.’ * The breeder, of course, symbolized God. Moved by an irrational sympathy for the filly, he promised her, starting from the next chapter, the everlasting delight of numerous stallions, while the cow, guilty of the sin of pride, was to be gradually condemned to the dismal pleasures of artificial fertilization. The pathetic mooing of the ruminant would prove incapable of swaying the judgment of the Great Architect. A delegation of sheep, formed in solidarity, had no better luck. The God presented in this short story was not, one observes, a merciful God. ~ Michel Houellebecq, #NFDB
272:Blight
Give me truths,
For I am weary of the surfaces,
And die of inanition. If I knew
Only the herbs and simples of the wood,
Rue, cinquefoil, gill, vervain, and pimpernel,
Blue-vetch, and trillium, hawkweed, sassafras,
Milkweeds, and murky brakes, quaint pipes and sundew,
And rare and virtuous roots, which in these woods
Draw untold juices from the common earth,
Untold, unknown, and I could surely spell
Their fragrance, and their chemistry apply
By sweet affinities to human flesh,
Driving the foe and stablishing the friend,
O that were much, and I could be a part
Of the round day, related to the sun,
And planted world, and full executor
Of their imperfect functions.
But these young scholars who invade our hills,
Bold as the engineer who fells the wood,
And travelling often in the cut he makes,
Love not the flower they pluck, and know it not,
And all their botany is Latin names.
The old men studied magic in the flower,
And human fortunes in astronomy,
And an omnipotence in chemistry,
Preferring things to names, for these were men,
Were unitarians of the united world,
And wheresoever their clear eyebeams fell,
They caught the footsteps of the SAME. Our eyes
Are armed, but we are strangers to the stars,
And strangers to the mystic beast and bird,
And strangers to the plant and to the mine;
The injured elements say, Not in us;
And night and day, ocean and continent,
Fire, plant, and mineral say, Not in us,
And haughtily return us stare for stare.
For we invade them impiously for gain,
We devastate them unreligiously,
And coldly ask their pottage, not their love,
Therefore they shove us from them, yield to us
Only what to our griping toil is due;
But the sweet affluence of love and song,
The rich results of the divine consents
Of man and earth, of world beloved and lover,
The nectar and ambrosia are withheld;
And in the midst of spoils and slaves, we thieves
And pirates of the universe, shut out
Daily to a more thin and outward rind,
Turn pale and starve. Therefore to our sick eyes,
The stunted trees look sick, the summer short,
Clouds shade the sun, which will not tan our hay.
And nothing thrives to reach its natural term,
And life, shorn of its venerable length,
Even at its greatest space, is a defeat,
And dies in anger that it was a dupe,
And, in its highest noon and wantonness,
Is early frugal like a beggar's child:
With most unhandsome calculation taught,
Even in the hot pursuit of the best aims
And prizes of ambition, checks its hand,
Like Alpine cataracts, frozen as they leaped,
Chilled with a miserly comparison
Of the toy's purchase with the length of life.
by owner. provided at no charge for educational purposes
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Blight
,#NFDB
273:Con el tiempo, acabaron enfrentándose en las densas junglas nueve países y doscientas tribus étnicas, cada una con sus antiguas alianzas y sus conflictos no resueltos. Si solo se hubieran visto implicados los ejércitos, lo más probable es que el conflicto del Congo se hubiera extinguido sin más. Congo tiene una extensión mayor que Alaska y es tan poco denso como Brasil, pero por carretera es incluso menos accesible que cualquiera de estos dos países, así que no es un lugar ideal para una guerra prolongada. Además, sus habitantes son pobres, y no pueden permitirse el lujo de ir a luchar si no hay dinero de por medio. Aquí es donde entran el tantalio, el niobio y la tecnología móvil. No es que pueda imputarse una responsabilidad directa, desde luego. Es obvio que no fueron los teléfonos móviles quienes provocaron la guerra, sino los odios y los rencores. Pero también es evidente que la llegada de dinero perpetuó la contienda. Congo posee el 60 por ciento de las reservas mundiales de los dos metales, que aparecen mezclados en un mineral llamado coltán. Cuando el mercado de los móviles despegó (las ventas saltaron de prácticamente cero en 1991 a más de mil millones en 2001), el hambre de Occidente por el mineral se hizo tan intenso como el de Tántalo, y el precio del coltán se multiplicó por diez. Quienes lo compraban para los fabricantes de teléfonos no preguntaban de dónde provenía, ni siquiera les importaba, y los mineros congoleños no tenían ni idea del uso que se le daba a la mena, solo sabían que los blancos la pagaban bien y que ellos podían usar el dinero para financiar sus milicias favoritas. Curiosamente, el tantalio y el niobio resultaron ser tan ponzoñosos porque el coltán era democrático. A diferencia de los tiempos en que unos impúdicos belgas controlaban las minas de diamantes y de oro del Congo, el coltán no lo controlaba ningún conglomerado empresarial; además, para extraerlo no hacían falta retroexcavadoras ni volquetes. Cualquiera que dispusiera de una pala y una buena espalda podía sacar unos cuantos kilos de mena de los lechos de los torrentes (se parece a un lodo denso). En unas pocas horas, un granjero podía ganar veinte veces más que su vecino en todo un año, así que a medida que los beneficios se inflaban, los hombres abandonaban sus granjas para dedicarse a la prospección. Esto trastornó la provisión de alimentos en el Congo, ya de por sí frágil, y la gente comenzó a cazar gorilas para comer su carne, hasta casi acabar con ellos, como si fueran búfalos. Pero las muertes de los gorilas no son nada comparadas con las atrocidades humanas. Cuando el dinero entra a espuertas en un país sin gobierno, no pasa nada bueno. Del país se apoderó una forma brutal de capitalismo en la que todo estaba en venta, incluidas las vidas humanas. Aparecieron por doquier «campamentos» vallados con prostitutas esclavizadas, y se ofrecieron innumerables recompensas por pasar a alguien a cuchillo. ~ Sam Kean, #NFDB
274:The Bottle And The Bird
Once on a time a friend of mine prevailed on me to go
To see the dazzling splendors of a sinful ballet show,
And after we had reveled in the saltatory sights
We sought a neighboring cafe for more tangible delights;
When I demanded of my friend what viands he preferred,
He quoth: 'A large cold bottle and a small hot bird!'
Fool that I was, I did not know what anguish hidden lies
Within the morceau that allures the nostrils and the eyes!
There is a glorious candor in an honest quart of wine-A certain inspiration which I cannot well define!
How it bubbles, how it sparkles, how its gurgling seems to say:
'Come, on a tide of rapture let me float your soul away!'
But the crispy, steaming mouthful that is spread upon your plate-How it discounts human sapience and satirizes fate!
You wouldn't think a thing so small could cause the pains and aches
That certainly accrue to him that of that thing partakes;
To me, at least (a guileless wight!) it never once occurred
What horror was encompassed in that one small hot bird.
Oh, what a head I had on me when I awoke next day,
And what a firm conviction of intestinal decay!
What seas of mineral water and of bromide I applied
To quench those fierce volcanic fires that rioted inside!
And, oh! the thousand solemn, awful vows I plighted then
Never to tax my system with a small hot bird again!
The doctor seemed to doubt that birds could worry people so,
But, bless him! since I ate the bird, I guess I ought to know!
The acidous condition of my stomach, so he said,
Bespoke a vinous irritant that amplified my head,
And, ergo, the causation of the thing, as he inferred,
Was the large cold bottle, not the small hot bird.
Of course, I know it wasn't, and I'm sure you'll say I'm right
If ever it has been your wont to train around at night;
How sweet is retrospection when one's heart is bathed in wine,
And before its balmy breath how do the ills of life decline!
295
How the gracious juices drown what griefs would vex a mortal breast,
And float the flattered soul into the port of dreamless rest!
But you, O noxious, pigmy bird, whether it be you fly
Or paddle in the stagnant pools that sweltering, festering lie-I curse you and your evil kind for that you do me wrong,
Engendering poisons that corrupt my petted muse of song;
Go, get thee hence, and nevermore discomfit me and mine-I fain would barter all thy brood for one sweet draught of wine!
So hither come, O sportive youth! when fades the tell-tale day-Come hither with your fillets and your wreathes of posies gay;
We shall unloose the fragrant seas of seething, frothing wine
Which now the cobwebbed glass and envious wire and corks confine,
And midst the pleasing revelry the praises shall be heard
Of the large cold bottle, _not_ the small hot bird.
~ Eugene Field,#NFDB
275:Snow on the Desert
"Each ray of sunshine is seven minutes old,"
Serge told me in New York one December night.
"So when I look at the sky, I see the past?"
"Yes, Yes,' he said. "especially on a clear day."
On January 19, 1987,
as I very early in the morning
drove my sister to Tucson International,
suddenly on Alvernon and 22nd Street
the sliding doors of the fog were opened,
and the snow, which had fallen all night, now
sun-dazzled, blinded us, the earth whitened
out, as if by cocaine, the desert's plants,
its mineral-hard colors extinguished,
wine frozen in the veins of the cactus.
The Desert Smells Like Rain: in it I read:
The syrup from which sacred wine is made
is extracted from the saguaros each
summer. The Papagos place it in jars,
where the last of it softens, then darkens
into a color of blood though it tastes
strangely sweet, almost white, like a dry wine.
As I tell Sameetah this, we are still
seven miles away. "And you know the flowers
of the saguaros bloom only at night?"
We are driving slowly, the road is glass.
"Imagine where we are was a sea once.
23
Just imagine!" The sky is relentlessly
sapphire, and the past is happening quickly:
the saguaros have opened themselves, stretched
out their arms to rays millions of years old,
in each ray a secret of the planet's
origin, the rays hurting each cactus
into memory, a human memory
for they are human, the Papagos say:
not only because they have arms and veins
and secrets. But because they too are a tribe,
vulnerable to massacre. "It is like
the end, perhaps the beginning of the world,"
Sameetah says, staring at their snow-sleeved
arms. And we are driving by the ocean
that evaporated here, by its shores,
the past now happening so quickly that each
stoplight hurts us into memory, the sky
taking rapid notes on us as we turn
at Tucson Boulevard and drive into
the airport, and I realize that the earth
is thawing from longing into longing and
that we are being forgotten by those arms.
At the airport I stared after her plane
till the window was
again a mirror.
As I drove back to the foothills, the fog
24
shut its doors behind me on Alvernon,
and I breathed the dried seas
the earth had lost,
their forsaken shores. And I remembered
another moment that refers only
to itself:
in New Delhi one night
as Begum Akhtar sang, the lights went out.
It was perhaps during the Bangladesh War,
perhaps there were sirens,
air-raid warnings.
But the audience, hushed, did not stir.
The microphone was dead, but she went on
singing, and her voice
was coming from far
away, as if she had already died.
And just before the lights did flood her
again, melting the frost
of her diamond
into rays, it was, like this turning dark
of fog, a moment when only a lost sea
can be heard, a time
to recollect
every shadow, everything the earth was losing,
a time to think of everything the earth
and I had lost, of all
that I would lose,
of all that I was losing.
25
~ Agha Shahid Ali,#NFDB
276:Forest Of Europe
The last leaves fell like notes from a piano
and left their ovals echoing in the ear;
with gawky music stands, the winter forest
looks like an empty orchestra, its lines
ruled on these scattered manuscripts of snow.
The inlaid copper laurel of an oak
shines though the brown-bricked glass above your head
as bright as whisky, while the wintry breath
of lines from Mandelstam, which you recite,
uncoils as visibly as cigarette smoke.
'The rustling of ruble notes by the lemon Neva.'
Under your exile's tongue, crisp under heel,
the gutturals crackle like decaying leaves,
the phrase from Mandelstam circles with light
in a brown room, in barren Oklahoma.
There is a Gulag Archipelago
under this ice, where the salt, mineral spring
of the long Trail of Tears runnels these plains
as hard and open as a herdsman's face
sun-cracked and stubbled with unshaven snow.
Growing in whispers from the Writers' Congress,
the snow circles like cossacks round the corpse
of a tired Choctaw till it is a blizzard
of treaties and white papers as we lose
sight of the single human through the cause.
So every spring these branches load their shelves,
like libraries with newly published leaves,
till waste recycles them—paper to snow—
but, at zero of suffering, one mind
lasts like this oak with a few brazen leaves.
As the train passed the forest's tortured icons,
ths floes clanging like freight yards, then the spires
of frozen tears, the stations screeching steam,
19
he drew them in a single winters' breath
whose freezing consonants turned into stone.
He saw the poetry in forlorn stations
under clouds vast as Asia, through districts
that could gulp Oklahoma like a grape,
not these tree-shaded prairie halts but space
so desolate it mocked destinations.
Who is that dark child on the parapets
of Europe, watching the evening river mint
its sovereigns stamped with power, not with poets,
the Thames and the Neva rustling like banknotes,
then, black on gold, the Hudson's silhouettes?
>From frozen Neva to the Hudson pours,
under the airport domes, the echoing stations,
the tributary of emigrants whom exile
has made as classless as the common cold,
citizens of a language that is now yours,
and every February, every 'last autumn',
you write far from the threshing harvesters
folding wheat like a girl plaiting her hair,
far from Russia's canals quivering with sunstroke,
a man living with English in one room.
The tourist archipelagoes of my South
are prisons too, corruptible, and though
there is no harder prison than writing verse,
what's poetry, if it is worth its salt,
but a phrase men can pass from hand to mouth?
>From hand to mouth, across the centuries,
the bread that lasts when systems have decayed,
when, in his forest of barbed-wire branches,
a prisoner circles, chewing the one phrase
whose music will last longer than the leaves,
whose condensation is the marble sweat
of angels' foreheads, which will never dry
till Borealis shuts the peacock lights
20
of its slow fan from L.A. to Archangel,
and memory needs nothing to repeat.
Frightened and starved, with divine fever
Osip Mandelstam shook, and every
metaphor shuddered him with ague,
each vowel heavier than a boundary stone,
'to the rustling of ruble notes by the lemon Neva,'
but now that fever is a fire whose glow
warms our hands, Joseph, as we grunt like primates
exchanging gutturals in this wintry cave
of a brown cottage, while in drifts outside
mastodons force their systems through the snow.
~ Derek Walcott,#NFDB
277:REPROGRAMMING MY BIOCHEMISTRY A common attitude is that taking substances other than food, such as supplements and medications, should be a last resort, something one takes only to address overt problems. Terry and I believe strongly that this is a bad strategy, particularly as one approaches middle age and beyond. Our philosophy is to embrace the unique opportunity we have at this time and place to expand our longevity and human potential. In keeping with this health philosophy, I am very active in reprogramming my biochemistry. Overall, I am quite satisfied with the dozens of blood levels I routinely test. My biochemical profile has steadily improved during the years that I have done this. For boosting antioxidant levels and for general health, I take a comprehensive vitamin-and-mineral combination, alpha lipoic acid, coenzyme Q10, grapeseed extract, resveratrol, bilberry extract, lycopene, silymarin (milk thistle), conjugated linoleic acid, lecithin, evening primrose oil (omega-6 essential fatty acids), n-acetyl-cysteine, ginger, garlic, l-carnitine, pyridoxal-5-phosphate, and echinacea. I also take Chinese herbs prescribed by Dr. Glenn Rothfeld. For reducing insulin resistance and overcoming my type 2 diabetes, I take chromium, metformin (a powerful anti-aging medication that decreases insulin resistance and which we recommend everyone over 50 consider taking), and gymnema sylvestra. To improve LDL and HDL cholesterol levels, I take policosanol, gugulipid, plant sterols, niacin, oat bran, grapefruit powder, psyllium, lecithin, and Lipitor. To improve blood vessel health, I take arginine, trimethylglycine, and choline. To decrease blood viscosity, I take a daily baby aspirin and lumbrokinase, a natural anti-fibrinolytic agent. Although my CRP (the screening test for inflammation in the body) is very low, I reduce inflammation by taking EPA/DHA (omega-3 essential fatty acids) and curcumin. I have dramatically reduced my homocysteine level by taking folic acid, B6, and trimethylglycine (TMG), and intrinsic factor to improve methylation. I have a B12 shot once a week and take a daily B12 sublingual. Several of my intravenous therapies improve my body’s detoxification: weekly EDTA (for chelating heavy metals, a major source of aging) and monthly DMPS (to chelate mercury). I also take n-acetyl-l-carnitine orally. I take weekly intravenous vitamins and alpha lipoic acid to boost antioxidants. I do a weekly glutathione IV to boost liver health. Perhaps the most important intravenous therapy I do is a weekly phosphatidylcholine (PtC) IV, which rejuvenates all of the body’s tissues by restoring youthful cell membranes. I also take PtC orally each day, and I supplement my hormone levels with DHEA and testosterone. I take I-3-C (indole-3-carbinol), chrysin, nettle, ginger, and herbs to reduce conversion of testosterone into estrogen. I take a saw palmetto complex for prostate health. For stress management, I take l-theonine (the calming substance in green tea), beta sitosterol, phosphatidylserine, and green tea supplements, in addition to drinking 8 to 10 cups of green tea itself. At bedtime, to aid with sleep, I take GABA (a gentle, calming neuro-transmitter) and sublingual melatonin. For brain health, I take acetyl-l-carnitine, vinpocetine, phosphatidylserine, ginkgo biloba, glycerylphosphorylcholine, nextrutine, and quercetin. For eye health, I take lutein and bilberry extract. For skin health, I use an antioxidant skin cream on my face, neck, and hands each day. For digestive health, I take betaine HCL, pepsin, gentian root, peppermint, acidophilus bifodobacter, fructooligosaccharides, fish proteins, l-glutamine, and n-acetyl-d-glucosamine. To inhibit the creation of advanced glycosylated end products (AGEs), a key aging process, I take n-acetyl-carnitine, carnosine, alpha lipoic acid, and quercetin. MAINTAINING A POSITIVE “HEALTH SLOPE” Most important, ~ Ray Kurzweil, #NFDB
278:I, In My Intricate Image
I, in my intricate image, stride on two levels,
Forged in man's minerals, the brassy orator
Laying my ghost in metal,
The scales of this twin world tread on the double,
My half ghost in armour hold hard in death's corridor,
To my man-iron sidle.
Beginning with doom in the bulb, the spring unravels,
Bright as her spinning-wheels, the colic season
Worked on a world of petals;
She threads off the sap and needles, blood and bubble
Casts to the pine roots, raising man like a mountain
Out of the naked entrail.
Beginning with doom in the ghost, and the springing marvels,
Image of images, my metal phantom
Forcing forth through the harebell,
My man of leaves and the bronze root, mortal, unmortal,
I, in my fusion of rose and male motion,
Create this twin miracle.
This is the fortune of manhood: the natural peril,
A steeplejack tower, bonerailed and masterless,
No death more natural;
Thus the shadowless man or ox, and the pictured devil,
In seizure of silence commit the dead nuisance.
The natural parallel.
My images stalk the trees and the slant sap's tunnel,
No tread more perilous, the green steps and spire
Mount on man's footfall,
I with the wooden insect in the tree of nettles,
In the glass bed of grapes with snail and flower,
Hearing the weather fall.
Intricate manhood of ending, the invalid rivals,
Voyaging clockwise off the symboled harbour,
85
Finding the water final,
On the consumptives' terrace taking their two farewells,
Sail on the level, the departing adventure,
To the sea-blown arrival.
II
They climb the country pinnacle,
Twelve winds encounter by the white host at pasture,
Corner the mounted meadows in the hill corral;
They see the squirrel stumble,
The haring snail go giddily round the flower,
A quarrel of weathers and trees in the windy spiral.
As they dive, the dust settles,
The cadaverous gravels, falls thick and steadily,
The highroad of water where the seabear and mackerel
Turn the long sea arterial
Turning a petrol face blind to the enemy
Turning the riderless dead by the channel wall.
(Death instrumental,
Splitting the long eye open, and the spiral turnkey,
Your corkscrew grave centred in navel and nipple,
The neck of the nostril,
Under the mask and the ether, they making bloody
The tray of knives, the antiseptic funeral;
Bring out the black patrol,
Your monstrous officers and the decaying army,
The sexton sentinel, garrisoned under thistles,
A cock-on-a-dunghill
Crowing to Lazarus the morning is vanity,
Dust be your saviour under the conjured soil.)
As they drown, the chime travels,
Sweetly the diver's bell in the steeple of spindrift
Rings out the Dead Sea scale;
And, clapped in water till the triton dangles,
Strung by the flaxen whale-weed, from the hangman's raft,
Hear they the salt glass breakers and the tongues of burial.
86
(Turn the sea-spindle lateral,
The grooved land rotating, that the stylus of lightning
Dazzle this face of voices on the moon-turned table,
Let the wax disk babble
Shames and the damp dishonours, the relic scraping.
These are your years' recorders. The circular world stands still.)
III
They suffer the undead water where the turtle nibbles,
Come unto sea-stuck towers, at the fibre scaling,
The flight of the carnal skull
And the cell-stepped thimble;
Suffer, my topsy-turvies, that a double angel
Sprout from the stony lockers like a tree on Aran.
Be by your one ghost pierced, his pointed ferrule,
Brass and the bodiless image, on a stick of folly
Star-set at Jacob's angle,
Smoke hill and hophead's valley,
And the five-fathomed Hamlet on his father's coral
Thrusting the tom-thumb vision up the iron mile.
Suffer the slash of vision by the fin-green stubble,
Be by the ships' sea broken at the manstring anchored
The stoved bones' voyage downward
In the shipwreck of muscle;
Give over, lovers, locking, and the seawax struggle,
Love like a mist or fire through the bed of eels.
And in the pincers of the boiling circle,
The sea and instrument, nicked in the locks of time,
My great blood's iron single
In the pouring town,
I, in a wind on fire, from green Adam's cradle,
No man more magical, clawed out the crocodile.
Man was the scales, the death birds on enamel,
Tail, Nile, and snout, a saddler of the rushes,
Time in the hourless houses
Shaking the sea-hatched skull,
And, as for oils and ointments on the flying grail,
87
All-hollowed man wept for his white apparel.
Man was Cadaver's masker, the harnessing mantle,
Windily master of man was the rotten fathom,
My ghost in his metal neptune
Forged in man's mineral.
This was the god of beginning in the intricate seawhirl,
And my images roared and rose on heaven's hill.
~ Dylan Thomas,#NFDB
279:Jubilate Agno: Fragment B, Part 1
Let Elizur rejoice with the Partridge, who is a prisoner of state and is proud of his
keepers.
Let Shedeur rejoice with Pyrausta, who dwelleth in a medium of fire, which God
hath adapted for him.
Let Shelumiel rejoice with Olor, who is of a goodly savour, and the very look of
him harmonizes the mind.
Let Jael rejoice with the Plover, who whistles for his live, and foils the marksmen
and their guns.
Let Raguel rejoice with the Cock of Portugal -- God send good Angels to the allies
of England!
Let Hobab rejoice with Necydalus, who is the Greek of a Grub.
Let Zurishaddai with the Polish Cock rejoice -- The Lord restore peace to Europe.
Let Zuar rejoice with the Guinea Hen -- The Lord add to his mercies in the WEST!
Let Chesed rejoice with Strepsiceros, whose weapons are the ornaments of his
peace.
Let Hagar rejoice with Gnesion, who is the right sort of eagle, and towers the
highest.
Let Libni rejoice with the Redshank, who migrates not but is translated to the
upper regions.
Let Nahshon rejoice with the Seabreese, the Lord give the sailors of his Spirit.
Let Helon rejoice with the Woodpecker -- the Lord encourage the propagation of
trees!
Let Amos rejoice with the Coote -- prepare to meet thy God, O Israel.
Let Ephah rejoice with Buprestis, the Lord endue us with temperance and
40
humanity, till every cow have her mate!
Let Sarah rejoice with the Redwing, whose harvest is in the frost and snow.
Let Rebekah rejoice with Iynx, who holds his head on one side to deceive the
adversary.
Let Shuah rejoice with Boa, which is the vocal serpent.
Let Ehud rejoice with Onocrotalus, whose braying is for the glory of God, because
he makes the best musick in his power.
Let Shamgar rejoice with Otis, who looks about him for the glory of God, and
sees the horizon compleat at once.
Let Bohan rejoice with the Scythian Stag -- he is beef and breeches against want
and nakedness.
Let Achsah rejoice with the Pigeon who is an antidote to malignity and will carry
a letter.
Let Tohu rejoice with the Grouse -- the Lord further the cultivating of heaths and
the peopling of deserts.
Let Hillel rejoice with Ammodytes, whose colour is deceitful and he plots against
the pilgrim's feet.
Let Eli rejoice with Leucon -- he is an honest fellow, which is a rarity.
Let Jemuel rejoice with Charadrius, who is from the HEIGHT and the sight of him
is good for the jaundice.
Let Pharaoh rejoice with Anataria, whom God permits to prey upon the ducks to
check their increase.
Let Lotan rejoice with Sauterelle. Blessed be the name of the Lord from the Lotetree to the Palm.
Let Dishon rejoice with the Landrail, God give his grace to the society for
preserving the game.
Let Hushim rejoice with the King's Fisher, who is of royal beauty, tho' plebeian
41
size.
Let Machir rejoice with Convolvulus, from him to the ring of Saturn, which is the
girth of Job; to the signet of God -- from Job and his daughters BLESSED BE
JESUS.
Let Atad bless with Eleos, the nightly Memorialist
ελεησον
κυριε .
Let Jamim rejoice with the Bittern -- blessed be the name of Jesus for Denver
Sluice, Ruston, and the draining of the fens.
Let Ohad rejoice with Byturos who eateth the vine and is a minister of
temperance.
Let Zohar rejoice with Cychramus who cometh with the quails on a particular
affair.
Let Serah, the daughter of Asher, rejoice with Ceyx, who maketh his cabin in the
Halcyon's hold.
Let Magdiel rejoice with Ascarides, which is the life of the bowels -- the worm
hath a part in our frame.
Let Becher rejoice with Oscen who terrifies the wicked, as trumpet and alarm the
coward.
Let Shaul rejoice with Circos, who hath clumsy legs, but he can wheel it the
better with his wings. -Let Hamul rejoice with the Crystal, who is pure and translucent.
Let Ziphion rejoice with the Tit-Lark who is a groundling, but he raises the spirits.
Let Mibzar rejoice with the Cadess, as is their number, so are their names,
blessed be the Lord Jesus for them all.
Let Jubal rejoice with Cascilia, the woman and the slow-worm praise the name of
the Lord.
42
Let Arodi rejoice with the Royston Crow, there is a society of them at
Trumpington and Cambridge.
Let Areli rejoice with the Criel, who is a dwarf that towereth above others.
Let Phuvah rejoice with Platycerotes, whose weapons of defence keep them
innocent.
Let Shimron rejoice with the Kite, who is of more value than many sparrows.
Let Sered rejoice with the Wittal -- a silly bird is wise unto his own preservation.
Let Elon rejoice with Attelabus, who is the Locust without wings.
Let Jahleel rejoice with the Woodcock, who liveth upon suction and is pure from
his diet.
Let Shuni rejoice with the Gull, who is happy in not being good for food.
Let Ezbon rejoice with Musimon, who is from the ram and she-goat.
Let Barkos rejoice with the Black Eagle, which is the least of his species and the
best-natured.
Let Bedan rejoice with Ossifrage -- the bird of prey and the man of prayer.
Let Naomi rejoice with Pseudosphece who is between a wasp and a hornet.
Let Ruth rejoice with the Tumbler -- it is a pleasant thing to feed him and be
thankful.
Let Ram rejoice with the Fieldfare, who is a good gift from God in the season of
scarcity.
Let Manoah rejoice with Cerastes, who is a Dragon with horns.
Let Talmai rejoice with Alcedo, who makes a cradle for it's young, which is rock'd
by the winds.
Let Bukki rejoice with the Buzzard, who is clever, with the reputation of a silly
fellow.
43
Let Michal rejoice with Leucocruta who is a mixture of beauty and magnanimity.
Let Abiah rejoice with Morphnus who is a bird of passage to the Heavens.
Let Hur rejoice with the Water-wag-tail, who is a neighbour, and loves to be
looked at.
Let Dodo rejoice with the purple Worm, who is cloathed sumptuously, tho he
fares meanly.
Let Ahio rejoice with the Merlin who is a cousin german of the hawk.
Let Joram rejoice with the Water-Rail, who takes his delight in the river.
Let Chileab rejoice with Ophion who is clean made, less than an hart, and a
Sardinian.
Let Shephatiah rejoice with the little Owl, which is the wingged Cat.
Let Ithream rejoice with the great Owl, who understandeth that which he
professes.
Let Abigail rejoice with Lethophagus -- God be gracious to the widows indeed.
Let Anathoth bless with Saurix, who is a bird of melancholy.
Let Shammua rejoice with the Vultur who is strength and fierceness.
Let Shobab rejoice with Evech who is of the goat kind which is meditation and
pleasantry.
Let Ittai the Gittite rejoice with the Gerfalcon amicus certus in re incertâ cernitur.
Let Ibhar rejoice with the Pochard -- a child born in prosperity is the chiefest
blessing of peace.
Let Elishua rejoice with Cantharis -- God send bread and milk to the children.
Let Chimham bless with Drepanis who is a passenger from the sea to heaven.
Let Toi rejoice with Percnopteros which haunteth the sugar-fens.
44
Let Nepheg rejoice with Cenchris which is the spotted serpent.
Let Japhia rejoice with Buteo who hath three testicles.
Let Gibeon rejoice with the Puttock, who will shift for himself to the last
extremity.
Let Elishama rejoice with Mylæcos Ισχετε
χειρα
μυλαιον
αλιτριδες .
ευδετε
μακρα .
Let Elimelech rejoice with the Horn-Owl who is of gravity and amongst my friends
in the tower.
Let Eliada rejoice with the Gier-eagle who is swift and of great penetration.
Let Eliphalet rejoice with Erodius who is God's good creature, which is sufficient
for him.
Let Jonathan, David's nephew, rejoice with Oripelargus who is noble by his
ascent.
Let Sheva rejoice with the Hobby, who is the service of the great.
Let Ahimaaz rejoice with the Silver-Worm who is a living mineral.
Let Shobi rejoice with the Kastrel -- blessed be the name JESUS in falconry and
in the MALL
Let Elkanah rejoice with Cymindis -- the Lord illuminate us against the powers of
darkness.
Let Ziba rejoice with Glottis whose tongue is wreathed in his throat.
Let Micah rejoice with the spotted Spider, who counterfeits death to effect his
purposes.
Let Rizpah rejoice with the Eyed Moth who is beautiful in corruption.
45
Let Naharai, Joab's armour-bearer rejoice with Rock who is a bird of stupendous
magnitude.
Let Abiezer, the Anethothite, rejoice with Phrynos who is the scaled frog.
Let Nachon rejoice with Parcas who is a serpent more innocent than others.
Let Lapidoth with Percnos -- the Lord is the builder of the wall of CHINA -REJOICE.
Let Ahinoam rejoice with Prester -- The seed of the woman hath bruised the
serpents head.
Let Phurah rejoice with Penelopes, the servant of Gideon with the fowl of the
brook.
Let Jether, the son of Gideon, rejoice with Ecchetae which are musical
grashoppers.
Let Hushai rejoice with the Ospray who is able to parry the eagle.
Let Eglah rejoice with Phalaris who is a pleasant object upon the water.
Let Haggith rejoice with the white Weasel who devoureth the honey and it's
maker.
Let Abital rejoice with Ptyas who is arrayed in green and gold.
Let Maacah rejoice with Dryophyte who was blessed of the Lord in the valley.
Let Zabud Solomon's friend rejoice with Oryx who is a frolicksome mountaineer.
Let Adoniram the receiver general of the excise rejoice with Hypnale the sleepy
adder.
Let Pedahel rejoice with Pityocampa who eateth his house in the pine.
Let Ibzam rejoice with the Brandling -- the Lord further the building of bridges
and making rivers navigable.
Let Gilead rejoice with Gentle -- the Lord make me a fisher of men.
46
Let Zelophehad rejoice with Ascalabotes who casteth not his coat till a new one is
prepared for him.
Let Mahlah rejoice with Pellos who is a tall bird and stately.
Let Tirzah rejoice with Tylus which is the Cheeslip and food for the chicken.
Let Hoglah rejoice with Leontophonos who will kill the lion, if he is eaten.
Let Milcah rejoice with the Horned Beetle who will strike a man in the face.
Let Noah rejoice with Hibris who is from a wild boar and a tame sow.
Let Abdon rejoice with the Glede who is very voracious and may not himself be
eaten.
Let Zuph rejoice with Dipsas, whose bite causeth thirst.
Let Schechem of Manasseh rejoice with the Green Worm whose livery is of the
field.
Let Gera rejoice with the Night Hawk -- blessed are those who watch when
others sleep.
Let Anath rejoice with Rauca who inhabiteth the root of the oak.
Let Cherub rejoice with the Cherub who is a bird and a blessed Angel.
***
For I am not without authority in my jeopardy, which I derive inevitably from the
glory of the name of the Lord.
For I bless God whose name is Jealous -- and there is a zeal to deliver us from
everlasting burnings.
For my existimation is good even amongst the slanderers and my memory shall
arise for a sweet savour unto the Lord.
For I bless the PRINCE of PEACE and pray that all the guns may be nail'd up,
save such are for the rejoicing days.
47
For I have abstained from the blood of the grape and that even at the Lord's
table.
For I have glorified God in GREEK and LATIN, the consecrated languages spoken
by the Lord on earth.
For I meditate the peace of Europe amongst family bickerings and domestic jars.
For the HOST is in the WEST -- the Lord make us thankful unto salvation.
For I preach the very GOSPEL of CHRIST without comment and with this weapon
shall I slay envy.
For I bless God in the rising generation, which is on my side.
For I have translated in the charity, which makes things better and I shall be
translated myself at the last.
For he that walked upon the sea, hath prepared the floods with the Gospel of
peace.
For the merciful man is merciful to his beast, and to the trees that give them
shelter.
For he hath turned the shadow of death into the morning,the Lord is his name.
For I am come home again, but there is nobody to kill the calf or to pay the
musick.
For the hour of my felicity, like the womb of Sarah, shall come at the latter end.
For I shou'd have avail'd myself of waggery, had not malice been multitudinous.
For there are still serpents that can speak -- God bless my head, my heart and
my heel.
For I bless God that I am of the same seed as Ehud, Mutius Scævola, and Colonel
Draper.
For the word of God is a sword on my side -- no matter what other weapon a
stick or a straw.
48
For I have adventured myself in the name of the Lord, and he hath marked me
for his own.
For I bless God for the Postmaster general and all conveyancers of letters under
his care especially Allen and Shelvock.
For my grounds in New Canaan shall infinitely compensate for the flats and
maynes of Staindrop Moor.
For the praise of God can give to a mute fish the notes of a nightingale.
For I have seen the White Raven and Thomas Hall of Willingham and am my self
a greater curiosity than both.
For I look up to heaven which is my prospect to escape envy by surmounting it.
For if Pharaoh had known Joseph, he woud have blessed God and me for the
illumination of the people.
For I pray God to bless improvements in gardening till London be a city of palmtrees.
For I pray to give his grace to the poor of England, that Charity be not offended
and that benevolence may increase.
For in my nature I quested for beauty, but God, God hath sent me to sea for
pearls.
For there is a blessing from the STONE of JESUS which is founded upon hell to
the precious jewell on the right hand of God.
For the nightly Visitor is at the window of the impenitent, while I sing a psalm of
my own composing.
For there is a note added to the scale, which the Lord hath made fuller, stronger
and more glorious.
For I offer my goat as he browses the vine, bless the Lord from chambering and
drunkeness.
For there is a traveling for the glory of God without going to Italy or France.
49
For I bless the children of Asher for the evil I did them and the good I might have
received at their hands.
For I rejoice like a worm in the rain in him that cherishes and from him that
tramples.
For I am ready for the trumpet and alarm to fight, to die and to rise again.
For the banish'd of the Lord shall come about again, for so he hath prepared for
them.
For sincerity is a jewel which is pure and transparent, eternal and inestimable.
For my hands and my feet are perfect as the sublimity of Naphtali and the felicity
of Asher.
For the names and number of animals are as the name and number of the stars.
-For I pray the Lord Jesus to translate my MAGNIFICAT into verse and represent
it.
For I bless the Lord Jesus from the bottom of Royston Cave to the top of King's
Chapel.
For I am a little fellow, which is intitled to the great mess by the benevolence of
God my father.
For I this day made over my inheritance to my mother in consideration of her
infirmities.
For I this day made over my inheritance to my mother in consideration of her
age.
For I this day made over my inheritance to my mother in consideration of her
poverty.
For I bless the thirteenth of August, in which I had the grace to obey the voice of
Christ in my conscience.
For I bless the thirteenth of August, in which I was willing to run all hazards for
50
the sake of the name of the Lord.
For I bless the thirteenth of August, in which I was willing to be called a fool for
the sake of Christ.
For I lent my flocks and my herds and my lands at once unto the Lord.
For nature is more various than observation tho' observers be innumerable.
For Agricola is Γηουργος .
For I pray God to bless POLLY in the blessing of Naomi and assign her to the
house of DAVID.
For I am in charity with the French who are my foes and Moabites because of the
Moabitish woman.
For my Angel is always ready at a pinch to help me out and to keep me up.
For CHRISTOPHER must slay the Dragon with a PHEON's head.
For they have seperated me and my bosom, whereas the right comes by setting
us together.
For silly fellow! silly fellow! is against me and belongeth neither to me nor my
family.
For he that scorneth the scorner hath condescended to my low estate.
For Abiah is the father of Joab and Joab of all Romans and English Men.
For they pass by me in their tour, and the good Samaritan is not yet come. -For I bless God in the behalf of TRINITY COLLEGE in CAMBRIDGE and the society
of PURPLES in LONDON. -For I have a nephew CHRISTOPHER to whom I implore the grace of God.
For I pray God bless the CAM -- Mr HIGGS and Mr and Mrs WASHBOURNE as the
drops of the dew.
For I pray God bless the king of Sardinia and make him an instrument of his
51
peace.
For I am possessed of a cat, surpassing in beauty, from whom I take occasion to
bless Almighty God.
For I pray God for the professors of the University of Cambridge to attend and to
amend.
For the Fatherless Children and widows are never deserted of the Lord.
For I pray God be gracious to the house of Stuart and consider their afflictions.
For I pray God be gracious to the seed of Virgil to Mr GOODMAN SMITH of King's
and Joseph STUD.
For I give God the glory that I am a son of ABRAHAM a PRINCE of the house of
my fathers.
For my brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as the stream of brooks
that pass away.
For I bless God for my retreat at CANBURY, as it was the place of the nativity of
my children.
For I pray God to give them the food which I cannot earn for them any otherwise
than by prayer.
For I pray God bless the Chinese which are of ABRAHAM and the Gospel grew
with them at the first.
For I bless God in the honey of the sugar-cane and the milk of the cocoa.
For I bless God in the libraries of the learned and for all the booksellers in the
world.
For I bless God in the strength of my loins and for the voice which he hath made
sonorous.
For tis no more a merit to provide for oneself, but to quit all for the sake of the
Lord.
For there is no invention but the gift of God, and no grace like the grace of
52
gratitude.
For grey hairs are honourable and tell every one of them to the glory of God.
For I bless the Lord Jesus for the memory of GAY, POPE and SWIFT.
For all good words are from GOD, and all others are cant.
For I am enabled by my ascent and the Lord haith raised me above my Peers.
For I pray God bless my lord CLARENDON and his seed for ever.
For there is silver in my mines and I bless God that it is rather there then in my
coffers.
For I blessed God in St James's Park till I routed all the company.
For the officers of the peace are at variance with me, and the watchman smites
me with his staff.
For I am the seed of the WELCH WOMAN and speak the truth from my heart.
For they lay wagers touching my life. -- God be gracious to the winners.
For the piety of Rizpah is imitable in the Lord -- wherefore I pray for the dead.
For the Lord is my ROCK and I am the bearer of his CROSS.
For I am like a frog in the brambles, but the Lord hath put his whole armour
upon me.
For I was a Viper-catcher in my youth and the Lord delivered me from his
venom.
For I rejoice that I attribute to God, what others vainly ascribe to feeble man.
For I am ready to die for his sake -- who lay down his life for all mankind.
For the son of JOSHUA shall prevail against the servant of Gideon -- Good men
have their betters,
For my seed shall worship the Lord JESUS as numerous and musical as the
53
grashoppers of Paradise.
For I pray God to turn the council of Ahitophel into foolishness.
For the learning of the Lord increases daily, as the sun is an improving angel.
For I pray God for a reformation amonst the women and the restoration of the
veil.
For beauty is better to look upon than to meddle with and tis good for a man not
to know a woman.
For the Lord Jesus made him a nosegay and blessed it and he blessed the
inhabitants of flowers.
For a faithful friend is the medicine of life, but a neighbour in the Lord is better
than he.
For I stood up betimes in behalf of LIBERTY, PROPERTY and NO EXCISE.
For they began with grubbing up my trees and now they have excluded the
planter.
For I am the Lord's builder and free and accepted MASON in CHRIST JESUS.
For I bless God in all gums and balsams and every thing that ministers relief to
the sick.
For the Sun's at work to make me a garment and the Moon is at work for my
wife.
For tall and stately are against me, but humiliation on humiliation is on my side.
For I have a providential acquaintance with men who bear the names of animals.
For I bless God to Mr Lion Mr Cock Mr Cat Mr Talbot Mr Hart Mrs Fysh Mr Grub,
and Miss Lamb.
For they throw my horns in my face and reptiles make themselves wings against
me.
For I bless God for the immortal soul of Mr Pigg of DOWNHAM in NORFOLK.
54
For I fast this day even the 31st of August N.S. to prepare for the SABBATH of
the Lord.
For the bite of an Adder is cured by its greese and the malice of my enemies by
their stupidity.
For I bless God in SHIPBOURNE FAIRLAWN the meadows the brooks and the
hills.
For th adversary hath exasperated the very birds against me, but the Lord
sustain'd me.
For I bless God for my Newcastle friends the voice of the raven and heart of the
oak.
For I bless God for every feather from the wren in the sedge to the CHERUBS and
their MATES.
~ Christopher Smart,#NFDB
280:BY MICHING MALLECHO, Esq.
Is it a party in a parlour,
Crammed just as they on earth were crammed,
Some sipping punchsome sipping tea;
But, as you by their faces see,
All silent, and alldamned!
Peter Bell, by W. Wordsworth.
Ophelia.What means this, my lord?
Hamlet.Marry, this is Miching Mallecho; it means mischief. ~Shakespeare.
PROLOGUE
Peter Bells, one, two and three,
O'er the wide world wandering be.
First, the antenatal Peter,
Wrapped in weeds of the same metre,
The so-long-predestined raiment
Clothed in which to walk his way meant
The second Peter; whose ambition
Is to link the proposition,
As the mean of two extremes
(This was learned from Aldric's themes)
Shielding from the guilt of schism
The orthodoxal syllogism;
The First Peterhe who was
Like the shadow in the glass
Of the second, yet unripe,
His substantial antitype.
Then came Peter Bell the Second,
Who henceforward must be reckoned
The body of a double soul,
And that portion of the whole
Without which the rest would seem
Ends of a disjointed dream.
And the Third is he who has
O'er the grave been forced to pass
To the other side, which is,
Go and try else,just like this.
Peter Bell the First was Peter
Smugger, milder, softer, neater,
Like the soul before it is
Born from that world into this.
The next Peter Bell was he,
Predevote, like you and me,
To good or evil as may come;
His was the severer doom,
For he was an evil Cotter,
And a polygamic Potter.
And the last is Peter Bell,
Damned since our first parents fell,
Damned eternally to Hell
Surely he deserves it well!
PART THE FIRST
DEATH
And Peter Bell, when he had been
With fresh-imported Hell-fire warmed,
Grew seriousfrom his dress and mien
'Twas very plainly to be seen
Peter was quite reformed.
His eyes turned up, his mouth turned down;
His accent caught a nasal twang;
He oiled his hair; there might be heard
The grace of God in every word
Which Peter said or sang.
But Peter now grew old, and had
An ill no doctor could unravel;
His torments almost drove him mad;
Some said it was a fever bad
Some swore it was the gravel.
His holy friends then came about,
And with long preaching and persuasion
Convinced the patient that, without
The smallest shadow of a doubt,
He was predestined to damnation.
They said'Thy name is Peter Bell;
Thy skin is of a brimstone hue;
Alive or deaday, sick or well
The one God made to rhyme with hell;
The other, I think, rhymes with you.'
Then Peter set up such a yell!
The nurse, who with some water gruel
Was climbing up the stairs, as well
As her old legs could climb themfell,
And broke them boththe fall was cruel.
The Parson from the casement lept
Into the lake of Windermere
And many an eelthough no adept
In God's right reason for itkept
Gnawing his kidneys half a year.
And all the rest rushed through the door,
And tumbled over one another,
And broke their skulls.Upon the floor
Meanwhile sat Peter Bell, and swore,
And cursed his father and his mother;
And raved of God, and sin, and death,
Blaspheming like an infidel;
And said, that with his clenchd teeth
He'd seize the earth from underneath,
And drag it with him down to hell.
As he was speaking came a spasm,
And wrenched his gnashing teeth asunder;
Like one who sees a strange phantasm
He lay,there was a silent chasm
Between his upper jaw and under.
And yellow death lay on his face;
And a fixed smile that was not human
Told, as I understand the case,
That he was gone to the wrong place:
I heard all this from the old woman.
Then there came down from Langdale Pike
A cloud, with lightning, wind and hail;
It swept over the mountains like
An ocean,and I heard it strike
The woods and crags of Grasmere vale.
And I saw the black storm come
Nearer, minute after minute;
Its thunder made the cataracts dumb;
With hiss, and clash, and hollow hum,
It neared as if the Devil was in it.
The Devil was in it:he had bought
Peter for half-a-crown; and when
The storm which bore him vanished, nought
That in the house that storm had caught
Was ever seen again.
The gaping neighbours came next day
They found all vanished from the shore:
The Bible, whence he used to pray,
Half scorched under a hen-coop lay;
Smashed glassand nothing more!
PART THE SECOND
THE DEVIL
The Devil, I safely can aver,
Has neither hoof, nor tail, nor sting;
Nor is he, as some sages swear,
A spirit, neither here nor there,
In nothingyet in everything.
He iswhat we are; for sometimes
The Devil is a gentleman;
At others a bard bartering rhymes
For sack; a statesman spinning crimes;
A swindler, living as he can;
A thief, who cometh in the night,
With whole boots and net pantaloons,
Like some one whom it were not right
To mention;or the luckless wight
From whom he steals nine silver spoons.
But in this case he did appear
Like a slop-merchant from Wapping,
And with smug face, and eye severe,
On every side did perk and peer
Till he saw Peter dead or napping.
He had on an upper Benjamin
(For he was of the driving schism)
In the which he wrapped his skin
From the storm he travelled in,
For fear of rheumatism.
He called the ghost out of the corse;
It was exceedingly like Peter,
Only its voice was hollow and hoarse
It had a queerish look of course
Its dress too was a little neater.
The Devil knew not his name and lot;
Peter knew not that he was Bell:
Each had an upper stream of thought,
Which made all seem as it was not;
Fitting itself to all things well.
Peter thought he had parents dear,
Brothers, sisters, cousins, cronies,
In the fens of Lincolnshire;
He perhaps had found them there
Had he gone and boldly shown his
Solemn phiz in his own village;
Where he thought oft when a boy
He'd clomb the orchard walls to pillage
The produce of his neighbour's tillage,
With marvellous pride and joy.
And the Devil thought he had,
'Mid the misery and confusion
Of an unjust war, just made
A fortune by the gainful trade
Of giving soldiers rations bad
The world is full of strange delusion
That he had a mansion planned
In a square like Grosvenor Square,
That he was aping fashion, and
That he now came to Westmoreland
To see what was romantic there.
And all this, though quite ideal,
Ready at a breath to vanish,
Was a state not more unreal
Than the peace he could not feel,
Or the care he could not banish.
After a little conversation,
The Devil told Peter, if he chose,
He'd bring him to the world of fashion
By giving him a situation
In his own serviceand new clothes.
And Peter bowed, quite pleased and proud,
And after waiting some few days
For a new liverydirty yellow
Turned up with blackthe wretched fellow
Was bowled to Hell in the Devil's chaise.
PART THE THIRD
HELL
Hell is a city much like London
A populous and a smoky city;
There are all sorts of people undone,
And there is little or no fun done;
Small justice shown, and still less pity.
There is a Castles, and a Canning,
A Cobbett, and a Castlereagh;
All sorts of caitiff corpses planning
All sorts of cozening for trepanning
Corpses less corrupt than they.
There is a -, who has lost
His wits, or sold them, none knows which;
He walks about a double ghost,
And though as thin as Fraud almost
Ever grows more grim and rich.
There is a Chancery Court; a King;
A manufacturing mob; a set
Of thieves who by themselves are sent
Similar thieves to represent;
An army; and a public debt.
Which last is a scheme of paper money,
And meansbeing interpreted
'Bees, keep your waxgive us the honey,
And we will plant, while skies are sunny,
Flowers, which in winter serve instead.'
There is a great talk of revolution
And a great chance of despotism
German soldierscampsconfusion
Tumultslotteriesragedelusion
Ginsuicideand methodism;
Taxes too, on wine and bread,
And meat, and beer, and tea, and cheese,
From which those patriots pure are fed,
Who gorge before they reel to bed
The tenfold essence of all these.
There are mincing women, mewing,
(Like cats, who amant miser,)
Of their own virtue, and pursuing
Their gentler sisters to that ruin,
Without whichwhat were chastity?
Lawyersjudgesold hobnobbers
Are therebailiffschancellors
Bishopsgreat and little robbers
Rhymesterspamphleteersstock-jobbers
Men of glory in the wars,
Things whose trade is, over ladies
To lean, and flirt, and stare, and simper,
Till all that is divine in woman
Grows cruel, courteous, smooth, inhuman,
Crucified 'twixt a smile and whimper.
Thrusting, toiling, wailing, moiling,
Frowning, preachingsuch a riot!
Each with never-ceasing labour,
Whilst he thinks he cheats his neighbour,
Cheating his own heart of quiet.
And all these meet at levees;
Dinners convivial and political;
Suppers of epic poets;teas,
Where small talk dies in agonies;
Breakfasts professional and critical;
Lunches and snacks so aldermanic
That one would furnish forth ten dinners,
Where reigns a Cretan-tongud panic,
Lest news Russ, Dutch, or Alemannic
Should make some losers, and some winners;
At conversazioniballs
Conventiclesand drawing-rooms
Courts of lawcommitteescalls
Of a morningclubsbook-stalls
Churchesmasqueradesand tombs.
And this is Helland in this smother
All are damnable and damned;
Each one damning, damns the other
They are damned by one another,
By none other are they damned.
'Tis a lie to say, 'God damns!'
Where was Heaven's Attorney General
When they first gave out such flams?
Let there be an end of shams,
They are mines of poisonous mineral.
Statesmen damn themselves to be
Cursed; and lawyers damn their souls
To the auction of a fee;
Churchmen damn themselves to see
God's sweet love in burning coals.
The rich are damned, beyond all cure,
To taunt, and starve, and trample on
The weak and wretched; and the poor
Damn their broken hearts to endure
Stripe on stripe, with groan on groan.
Sometimes the poor are damned indeed
To take,not means for being blessed,
But Cobbett's snuff, revenge; that weed
From which the worms that it doth feed
Squeeze less than they before possessed.
And some few, like we know who,
Damnedbut God alone knows why
To believe their minds are given
To make this ugly Hell a Heaven;
In which faith they live and die.
Thus, as in a town, plague-stricken,
Each man be he sound or no
Must indifferently sicken;
As when day begins to thicken,
None knows a pigeon from a crow,
So good and bad, sane and mad,
The oppressor and the oppressed;
Those who weep to see what others
Smile to inflict upon their brothers;
Lovers, haters, worst and best;
All are damnedthey breathe an air,
Thick, infected, joy-dispelling:
Each pursues what seems most fair,
Mining like moles, through mind, and there
Scoop palace-caverns vast, where Care
In thrond state is ever dwelling.
PART THE FOURTH
SIN
Lo, Peter in Hell's Grosvenor Square,
A footman in the Devil's service!
And the misjudging world would swear
That every man in service there
To virtue would prefer vice.
But Peter, though now damned, was not
What Peter was before damnation.
Men oftentimes prepare a lot
Which ere it finds them, is not what
Suits with their genuine station.
All things that Peter saw and felt
Had a peculiar aspect to him;
And when they came within the belt
Of his own nature, seemed to melt,
Like cloud to cloud, into him.
And so the outward world uniting
To that within him, he became
Considerably uninviting
To those who, meditation slighting,
Were moulded in a different frame.
And he scorned them, and they scorned him;
And he scorned all they did; and they
Did all that men of their own trim
Are wont to do to please their whim,
Drinking, lying, swearing, play.
Such were his fellow-servants; thus
His virtue, like our own, was built
Too much on that indignant fuss
Hypocrite Pride stirs up in us
To bully one another's guilt.
He had a mind which was somehow
At once circumference and centre
Of all he might or feel or know;
Nothing went ever out, although
Something did ever enter.
He had as much imagination
As a pint-pot;he never could
Fancy another situation,
From which to dart his contemplation,
Than that wherein he stood.
Yet his was individual mind,
And new created all he saw
In a new manner, and refined
Those new creations, and combined
Them, by a master-spirit's law.
Thusthough unimaginative
An apprehension clear, intense,
Of his mind's work, had made alive
The things it wrought on; I believe
Wakening a sort of thought in sense.
But from the first 'twas Peter's drift
To be a kind of moral eunuch,
He touched the hem of Nature's shift,
Felt faintand never dared uplift
The closest, all-concealing tunic.
She laughed the while, with an arch smile,
And kissed him with a sister's kiss,
And said'My best Diogenes,
I love you wellbut, if you please,
Tempt not again my deepest bliss.
''Tis you are coldfor I, not coy,
Yield love for love, frank, warm, and true;
And Burns, a Scottish peasant boy
His errors prove itknew my joy
More, learnd friend, than you.
'Bocca bacciata non perde ventura,
Anzi rinnuova come fa la luna:
So thought Boccaccio, whose sweet words might cure a
Male prude, like you, from what you now endure, a
Low-tide in soul, like a stagnant laguna.'
Then Peter rubbed his eyes severe,
And smoothed his spacious forehead down
With his broad palm;'twixt love and fear,
He looked, as he no doubt felt, queer,
And in his dream sate down.
The Devil was no uncommon creature;
A leaden-witted thiefjust huddled
Out of the dross and scum of nature;
A toad-like lump of limb and feature,
With mind, and heart, and fancy muddled.
He was that heavy, dull, cold thing,
The spirit of evil well may be:
A drone too base to have a sting;
Who gluts, and grimes his lazy wing,
And calls lust, luxury.
Now he was quite the kind of wight
Round whom collect, at a fixed aera,
Venison, turtle, hock, and claret,
Good cheerand those who come to share it
And best East Indian madeira!
It was his fancy to invite
Men of science, wit, and learning,
Who came to lend each other light;
He proudly thought that his gold's might
Had set those spirits burning.
And men of learning, science, wit,
Considered him as you and I
Think of some rotten tree, and sit
Lounging and dining under it,
Exposed to the wide sky.
And all the while, with loose fat smile,
The willing wretch sat winking there,
Believing 'twas his power that made
That jovial sceneand that all paid
Homage to his unnoticed chair.
Though to be sure this place was Hell;
He was the Deviland all they
What though the claret circled well,
And wit, like ocean, rose and fell?
Were damned eternally.
PART THE FIFTH
GRACE
Among the guests who often stayed
Till the Devil's petits-soupers,
A man there came, fair as a maid,
And Peter noted what he said,
Standing behind his master's chair.
He was a mighty poetand
A subtle-souled psychologist;
All things he seemed to understand,
Of old or newof sea or land
But his own mindwhich was a mist.
This was a man who might have turned
Hell into Heavenand so in gladness
A Heaven unto himself have earned;
But he in shadows undiscerned
Trusted,and damned himself to madness.
He spoke of poetry, and how
'Divine it wasa lighta love
A spirit which like wind doth blow
As it listeth, to and fro;
A dew rained down from God above;
'A power which comes and goes like dream,
And which none can ever trace
Heaven's light on earthTruth's brightest beam.'
And when he ceased there lay the gleam
Of those words upon his face.
Now Peter, when he heard such talk,
Would, heedless of a broken pate,
Stand like a man asleep, or balk
Some wishing guest of knife or fork,
Or drop and break his master's plate.
At night he oft would start and wake
Like a lover, and began
In a wild measure songs to make
On moor, and glen, and rocky lake,
And on the heart of man
And on the universal sky
And the wide earth's bosom green,
And the sweet, strange mystery
Of what beyond these things may lie,
And yet remain unseen.
For in his thought he visited
The spots in which, ere dead and damned,
He his wayward life had led;
Yet knew not whence the thoughts were fed
Which thus his fancy crammed.
And these obscure remembrances
Stirred such harmony in Peter,
That, whensoever he should please,
He could speak of rocks and trees
In poetic metre.
For though it was without a sense
Of memory, yet he remembered well
Many a ditch and quick-set fence;
Of lakes he had intelligence,
He knew something of heath and fell.
He had also dim recollections
Of pedlars tramping on their rounds;
Milk-pans and pails; and odd collections
Of saws, and proverbs; and reflections
Old parsons make in burying-grounds.
But Peter's verse was clear, and came
Announcing from the frozen hearth
Of a cold age, that none might tame
The soul of that diviner flame
It augured to the Earth:
Like gentle rains, on the dry plains,
Making that green which late was gray,
Or like the sudden moon, that stains
Some gloomy chamber's window-panes
With a broad light like day.
For language was in Peter's hand
Like clay while he was yet a potter;
And he made songs for all the land,
Sweet both to feel and understand,
As pipkins late to mountain Cotter.
And Mr. -, the bookseller,
Gave twenty pounds for some;then scorning
A footman's yellow coat to wear,
Peter, too proud of heart, I fear,
Instantly gave the Devil warning.
Whereat the Devil took offence,
And swore in his soul a great oath then,
'That for his damned impertinence
He'd bring him to a proper sense
Of what was due to gentlemen!'
PART THE SIXTH
DAMNATION
'O that mine enemy had written
A book!'cried Job:a fearful curse,
If to the Arab, as the Briton,
'Twas galling to be critic-bitten:
The Devil to Peter wished no worse.
When Peter's next new book found vent,
The Devil to all the first Reviews
A copy of it slyly sent,
With five-pound note as compliment,
And this short notice'Pray abuse.'
Then seriatim, month and quarter,
Appeared such mad tirades.One said
'Peter seduced Mrs. Foy's daughter,
Then drowned the mother in Ullswater,
The last thing as he went to bed.'
Another'Let him shave his head!
Where's Dr. Willis?Or is he joking?
What does the rascal mean or hope,
No longer imitating Pope,
In that barbarian Shakespeare poking?'
One more, 'Is incest not enough?
And must there be adultery too?
Grace after meat? Miscreant and Liar!
Thief! Blackguard! Scoundrel! Fool! Hell-fire
Is twenty times too good for you.
'By that last book of yours we think
You've double damned yourself to scorn;
We warned you whilst yet on the brink
You stood. From your black name will shrink
The babe that is unborn.'
All these Reviews the Devil made
Up in a parcel, which he had
Safely to Peter's house conveyed.
For carriage, tenpence Peter paid
Untied themread themwent half mad.
'What!' cried he, 'this is my reward
For nights of thought, and days of toil?
Do poets, but to be abhorred
By men of whom they never heard,
Consume their spirits' oil?
'What have I done to them?and who
Is Mrs. Foy? 'Tis very cruel
To speak of me and Betty so!
Adultery! God defend me! Oh!
I've half a mind to fight a duel.
'Or,' cried he, a grave look collecting,
'Is it my genius, like the moon,
Sets those who stand her face inspecting,
That face within their brain reflecting,
Like a crazed bell-chime, out of tune?'
For Peter did not know the town,
But thought, as country readers do,
For half a guinea or a crown,
He bought oblivion or renown
From God's own voice in a review.
All Peter did on this occasion
Was, writing some sad stuff in prose.
It is a dangerous invasion
When poets criticize; their station
Is to delight, not pose.
The Devil then sent to Leipsic fair
For Born's translation of Kant's book;
A world of words, tail foremost, where
Rightwrongfalsetrueand fouland fair
As in a lottery-wheel are shook.
Five thousand crammed octavo pages
Of German psychologics,he
Who his furor verborum assuages
Thereon, deserves just seven months' wages
More than will e'er be due to me.
I looked on them nine several days,
And then I saw that they were bad;
A friend, too, spoke in their dispraise,
He never read them;with amaze
I found Sir William Drummond had.
When the book came, the Devil sent
It to P. Verbovale, Esquire,
With a brief note of compliment,
By that night's Carlisle mail. It went,
And set his soul on fire.
Fire, which ex luce praebens fumum,
Made him beyond the bottom see
Of truth's clear wellwhen I and you, Ma'am,
Go, as we shall do, subter humum,
We may know more than he.
Now Peter ran to seed in soul
Into a walking paradox;
For he was neither part nor whole,
Nor good, nor badnor knave nor fool;
Among the woods and rocks
Furious he rode, where late he ran,
Lashing and spurring his tame hobby;
Turned to a formal puritan,
A solemn and unsexual man,
He half believed White Obi.
This steed in vision he would ride,
High trotting over nine-inch bridges,
With Flibbertigibbet, imp of pride,
Mocking and mowing by his side
A mad-brained goblin for a guide
Over corn-fields, gates, and hedges.
After these ghastly rides, he came
Home to his heart, and found from thence
Much stolen of its accustomed flame;
His thoughts grew weak, drowsy, and lame
Of their intelligence.
To Peter's view, all seemed one hue;
He was no Whig, he was no Tory;
No Deist and no Christian he;
He got so subtle, that to be
Nothing, was all his glory.
One single point in his belief
From his organization sprung,
The heart-enrooted faith, the chief
Ear in his doctrines' blighted sheaf,
That 'Happiness is wrong';
So thought Calvin and Dominic;
So think their fierce successors, who
Even now would neither stint nor stick
Our flesh from off our bones to pick,
If they might 'do their do.'
His morals thus were undermined:
The old Peterthe hard, old Potter
Was born anew within his mind;
He grew dull, harsh, sly, unrefined,
As when he tramped beside the Otter.
In the death hues of agony
Lambently flashing from a fish,
Now Peter felt amused to see
Shades like a rainbow's rise and flee,
Mixed with a certain hungry wish.
So in his Country's dying face
He lookedand, lovely as she lay,
Seeking in vain his last embrace,
Wailing her own abandoned case,
With hardened sneer he turned away:
And coolly to his own soul said;
'Do you not think that we might make
A poem on her when she's dead:
Or, noa thought is in my head
Her shroud for a new sheet I'll take:
'My wife wants one.Let who will bury
This mangled corpse! And I and you,
My dearest Soul, will then make merry,
As the Prince Regent did with Sherry,'
'Ayand at last desert me too.'
And so his Soul would not be gay,
But moaned within him; like a fawn
Moaning within a cave, it lay
Wounded and wasting, day by day,
Till all its life of life was gone.
As troubled skies stain waters clear,
The storm in Peter's heart and mind
Now made his verses dark and queer:
They were the ghosts of what they were,
Shaking dim grave-clothes in the wind.
For he now raved enormous folly,
Of Baptisms, Sunday-schools, and Graves,
'Twould make George Colman melancholy
To have heard him, like a male Molly,
Chanting those stupid staves.
Yet the Reviews, who heaped abuse
On Peter while he wrote for freedom,
So soon as in his song they spy
The folly which soothes tyranny,
Praise him, for those who feed 'em.
'He was a man, too great to scan;
A planet lost in truth's keen rays:
His virtue, awful and prodigious;
He was the most sublime, religious,
Pure-minded Poet of these days.'
As soon as he read that, cried Peter,
'Eureka! I have found the way
To make a better thing of metre
Than e'er was made by living creature
Up to this blessd day.'
Then Peter wrote odes to the Devil;
In one of which he meekly said:
'May Carnage and Slaughter,
Thy niece and thy daughter,
May Rapine and Famine,
Thy gorge ever cramming,
Glut thee with living and dead!
'May Death and Damnation,
And Consternation,
Flit up from Hell with pure intent!
Slash them at Manchester,
Glasgow, Leeds, and Chester;
Drench all with blood from Avon to Trent.
'Let thy body-guard yeomen
Hew down babes and women,
And laugh with bold triumph till Heaven be rent!
When Moloch in Jewry
Munched children with fury,
It was thou, Devil, dining with pure intent.'
PART THE SEVENTH
DOUBLE DAMNATION
The Devil now knew his proper cue.
Soon as he read the ode, he drove
To his friend Lord MacMurderchouse's,
A man of interest in both houses,
And said:'For money or for love,
'Pray find some cure or sinecure;
To feed from the superfluous taxes
A friend of oursa poetfewer
Have fluttered tamer to the lure
Than he.' His lordship stands and racks his
Stupid brains, while one might count
As many beads as he had boroughs,
At length replies; from his mean front,
Like one who rubs out an account,
Smoothing away the unmeaning furrows:
'It happens fortunately, dear Sir,
I can. I hope I need require
No pledge from you, that he will stir
In our affairs;like Oliver,
That he'll be worthy of his hire.'
These words exchanged, the news sent off
To Peter, home the Devil hied,
Took to his bed; he had no cough,
No doctor,meat and drink enough,
Yet that same night he died.
The Devil's corpse was leaded down;
His decent heirs enjoyed his pelf,
Mourning-coaches, many a one,
Followed his hearse along the town:
Where was the Devil himself?
When Peter heard of his promotion,
His eyes grew like two stars for bliss:
There was a bow of sleek devotion
Engendering in his back; each motion
Seemed a Lord's shoe to kiss.
He hired a house, bought plate, and made
A genteel drive up to his door,
With sifted gravel neatly laid,
As if defying all who said,
Peter was ever poor.
But a disease soon struck into
The very life and soul of Peter
He walked aboutslepthad the hue
Of health upon his cheeksand few
Dug betternone a heartier eater.
And yet a strange and horrid curse
Clung upon Peter, night and day;
Month after month the thing grew worse,
And deadlier than in this my verse
I can find strength to say.
Peter was dullhe was at first
Dulloh, so dullso very dull!
Whether he talked, wrote, or rehearsed
Still with this dulness was he cursed
Dullbeyond all conceptiondull.
No one could read his booksno mortal,
But a few natural friends, would hear him;
The parson came not near his portal;
His state was like that of the immortal
Described by Swiftno man could bear him.
His sister, wife, and children yawned,
With a long, slow, and drear ennui,
All human patience far beyond;
Their hopes of Heaven each would have pawned,
Anywhere else to be.
But in his verse, and in his prose,
The essence of his dulness was
Concentred and compressed so close,
'Twould have made Guatimozin doze
On his red gridiron of brass.
A printer's boy, folding those pages,
Fell slumbrously upon one side;
Like those famed Seven who slept three ages.
To wakeful frenzy's vigil-rages,
As opiates, were the same applied.
Even the Reviewers who were hired
To do the work of his reviewing,
With adamantine nerves, grew tired;
Gaping and torpid they retired,
To dream of what they should be doing.
And worse and worse, the drowsy curse
Yawned in him, till it grew a pest
A wide contagious atmosphere,
Creeping like cold through all things near;
A power to infect and to infest.
His servant-maids and dogs grew dull;
His kitten, late a sportive elf;
The woods and lakes, so beautiful,
Of dim stupidity were full,
All grew dull as Peter's self.
The earth under his feetthe springs,
Which lived within it a quick life,
The air, the winds of many wings,
That fan it with new murmurings,
Were dead to their harmonious strife.
The birds and beasts within the wood,
The insects, and each creeping thing,
Were now a silent multitude;
Love's work was left unwroughtno brood
Near Peter's house took wing.
And every neighbouring cottager
Stupidly yawned upon the other:
No jackass brayed; no little cur
Cocked up his ears;no man would stir
To save a dying mother.
Yet all from that charmed district went
But some half-idiot and half-knave,
Who rather than pay any rent,
Would live with marvellous content,
Over his father's grave.
No bailiff dared within that space,
For fear of the dull charm, to enter;
A man would bear upon his face,
For fifteen months in any case,
The yawn of such a venture.
Seven miles abovebelowaround
This pest of dulness holds its sway;
A ghastly life without a sound;
To Peter's soul the spell is bound
How should it ever pass away?
'Composed at Florence, October 1819, and forwarded to Hunt (Nov. 2) to be published by C. & J. Ollier without the author's name; ultimately printed by Mrs. Shelley in the second edition of the Poetical Works, 1839. A skit by John Hamilton Reynolds, Peter Bell, A Lyrical Ballad, had already appeared (April, 1819), a few days before the publication of Wordsworth's Peter Bell, A Tale. These productions were reviewed in Leigh Hunt's Examiner (April 26, May 3, 1819); and to the entertainment derived from his perusal of Hunt's criticisms the composition of Shelley's Peter Bell the Third is chiefly owing.' ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, Peter Bell The Third
,#NFDB
33 Integral Yoga
18 Occultism
12 Psychology
9 Fiction
8 Poetry
6 Theosophy
4 Christianity
3 Integral Theory
3 Hinduism
2 Philosophy
2 Education
1 Yoga
1 Thelema
1 Sufism
1 Philsophy
1 Cybernetics
1 Baha i Faith
1 Alchemy
19 The Mother
14 Satprem
12 Carl Jung
10 Nolini Kanta Gupta
8 H P Lovecraft
7 Rudolf Steiner
6 Sri Aurobindo
4 Aleister Crowley
3 Walt Whitman
3 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
2 Vyasa
2 Jorge Luis Borges
2 Jordan Peterson
2 Italo Calvino
2 Franz Bardon
2 Alice Bailey
2 Aldous Huxley
8 Lovecraft - Poems
6 The Secret Doctrine
6 Mysterium Coniunctionis
5 The Life Divine
4 Theosophy
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
3 Whitman - Poems
3 The Phenomenon of Man
3 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01
2 Vishnu Purana
2 The Practice of Psycho therapy
2 The Perennial Philosophy
2 The Essentials of Education
2 The Castle of Crossed Destinies
2 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
2 Questions And Answers 1957-1958
2 On Thoughts And Aphorisms
2 Maps of Meaning
2 Magick Without Tears
2 Initiation Into Hermetics
2 Essays Divine And Human
2 A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
2 Aion
2 Agenda Vol 10
2 Agenda Vol 07
2 Agenda Vol 05
2 Agenda Vol 03
0 0.01 - Introduction, #Agenda Vol 1, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
'Are you conscious of your ceils?' She asked us a short time after the little operation of spiritual demolition She had undergone. 'No? Well, become conscious of your cells, and you will see that it gives TERRESTRIAL results.' To become conscious of one's cells? ... It was a far more radical operation than crossing the Maroni with a machete in hand, for after all, trees and lianas can be cut, but what cannot be so easily uncovered are the grandfa ther and the grandmo ther and the whole atavistic pack, not to mention the animal and plant and mineral layers that form a teeming humus over this single pure little cell beneath its millennial genetic program. The grandfa thers and grandmo thers grow back again like crabgrass, along with all the old habits of being hungry, afraid, falling ill, fearing the worst, hoping for the best, which is still the best of an old mortal habit. All this is not uprooted nor entrapped as easily as celestial 'liberations,' which leave the teeming humus in peace and the body to its usual decomposition. She had come to hew a path through all that. She was the Ancient One of evolution who had come to make a new cleft in the old, tedious habit of being a man. She did not like tedious repetitions, She was the adventuress par excellence - the adventuress of the earth. She was wrenching out for man the great Possible that was already beating there, in his primeval clearing, which he believed he had momentarily trapped with a few machines.
She was uprooting a new Matter, free, free from the habit of inexorably being a man who repeats himself ad infinitum with a few improvements in the way of organ transplants or monetary exchanges. In fact, She was there to discover what would happen after materialism and after spiritualism, these prodigal twin brothers. Because Materialism is dying in the West for the same reason that Spiritualism is dying in the East: it is the hour of the new species. Man needs to awaken, not only from his demons but also from his gods. A new Matter, yes, like a new Spirit, yes, because we still know neither one nor the other. It is the hour when Science, like Spirituality, at the end of their roads, must discover what Matter TRULY is, for it is really there that a Spirit as yet unknown to us is to be found. It is a time when all the 'isms' of the old species are dying: 'The age of
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
the object of finding water or minerals, by means of the
vibrations of a hazel twig.
--
mineral kingdom, the word "moves" the vegetable kingdom,
and the phrase "has its being" the lower animals, including
0.08 - Letters to a Young Captain, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
rate, as in the stone, the mineral kingdom, the consciousness
there is entirely inactive and hidden. The history of the earth
01.09 - The Parting of the Way, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Nature has marched from the unconscious to the sub-conscious, from the sub-conscious to the conscious and from the conscious to the self-conscious; she has to rise yet again from the self-conscious to the super-conscious. The mineral gave place to the plant, the plant gave place to the animal and the animal gave place to man; let man give place to and bring out the divine.
***
0 1961-03-11, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
A similar memory has recurred several times under different circumstancesnot exactly the same scene and the same images, because it wasnt something I was seeing but A LIFE I was living. During a certain period, at any time, night or day, I would experience a particular state of trance in which I was rediscovering a life I had lived. I was fully conscious that this life had to do with the first flowering of the human form upon earth, the first human forms able to incarnate the divine being from above. This was the first time I could manifest in a particular terrestrial form (not a general life but an individual form); that is, for the first time, through the mentalization of this material substance, the junction between the higher Being and the lower being was made. I have lived that several times, and always in a similar setting and with quite a similar feeling of such joyous simplicity, without complexity, without problems, without all these questions. It was the blossoming of a joy of lifenothing but that; love and harmony prevailed: flowers, minerals, animals all got along together perfectly.
Things began to go wrong only a LONG time afterwards, long after (but this is a personal impression), probably because certain mental crystallizations were necessary, inevitable, for the general evolution, so that the mind might prepare itself to move on to something else. That was when oh, it seems like a fall into a pitinto ugliness, darkness! Everything became so dark, so ugly, so difficult, so painful. Really really the sense of a fall.
0 1962-02-13, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In fact, in the Agenda conversations of 1958 and '59 (never noted by Satprem because he believed them too "personal"), Mother mentioned this as one of the main reasons for encouraging his tantric discipline. He even set out for the Himalayas, like a knight of yore, with the idea of bringing back to Mother the secrets of transformation; and Mother indicated to him the spot where one of her former bodies lay in a Himalayan cave, petrified by a mineral spring. But the secret of the new species can manifestly not be found through any "trick" tantric or otherwiseone's very nature must change. No one could help Mother because if someone "knew," it would already be done.
Mother means that it wasn't possible for Sri Aurobindo to continue.
0 1962-12-15, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
There are four classifications of terrestrial formations: mineral, vegetal, animal, and psycho-intellectual or human-divine. Among the four, in order, there are no divisions.
Divine unity, embodied and manifested by collective humanity.
0 1964-10-17, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
I am not aware of what people nowadays think they know, but, for example, when the animal reign dominated the earth, before it appeared and to make it appear, were there ever any catastrophes? Of course, you can vaguely feel an earth that slowly grows colder and is first purely mineral, then plants appear little by littleyou see that very well (Ive even seen very interesting photographs), but is it the fact of growing colder that itself caused catastrophes? Earthquakes, submersions, floods?
Yes, there was a period of great foldings.
0 1964-12-02, #Agenda Vol 05, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Ive had some very precise memorieslived memoriesof a human life on earth, quite primitive (I mean outside any mental civilization), a human life on earth that wasnt an evolutionary life, but the manifestation of beings from another world. I lived in that way for a timea lived memory. I still see it, I still have the image of it in my memory. It had nothing to do with civilization and mental development: it was a blossoming of force, of beauty, in a NATURAL, spontaneous life, like animal life, but with a perfection of consciousness and power that far surpasses the one we have now; and indeed with a power over all surrounding Nature, animal nature and vegetable nature and mineral nature, a DIRECT handling of Matter, which men do not havethey need intermediaries, material instruments, whereas this was direct. And there were no thoughts or reasoning: it was spontaneous (gesture indicating the direct radiating action of will on Matter). I have the lived memory of this. It must have existed on earth because it wasnt premonitory: it wasnt a vision of the future, it was a past memory. So there must have been a moment It was limited to two beings: I dont have the feeling there were many. And there was no childbirth or anything animal, absolutely not; it was a life, yes, a truly higher life in a natural setting, but with an extraordinary beauty and harmony! And I dont have the feeling it was (how can I explain?) something known; the relationships with vegetable life and animal life were spontaneous ones, absolutely harmonious, and with the sensation of an undisputed power (you didnt even feel it was possible for it not to be), undisputed, but without any idea that there were other beings on earth and that it was necessary to look after them or make a demonstrationnothing of the sort, absolutely nothing of mental life, nothing. A life just like that, like a beautiful plant or a beautiful animal, but with an inner knowledge of things, perfectly spontaneous and effortlessan effortless life, perfectly spontaneous. I dont even have the feeling that there was any question of food, not that I remember; but there was the joy of Life, the joy of Beauty: there were flowers, there was water, there were trees, there were animals, and all that was friendly, but spontaneously so. And there were no problems! No problems to be solved, nothing at allone just lived!
An uncomplicated life, definitely.
0 1966-09-24, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
You dont mean people? You mean the earth as the mineral, vegetal, animal world?
No, I was referring to humans, to the whole earth.
0 1966-11-09, #Agenda Vol 07, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In reality, its a threefold movement: the creation, which was the flight from the Divine (according, of course, to the ordinary conception which says that the creation fell, it wandered away from the Divine and men wandered away from the Divine); that was the first movement. But thats because he sees it too closely; he doesnt see that the Divine plunged to the very bottom of the Inconscient. (And thats the question: Why did He plunge to the very bottom of the Inconscient? Thats to be investigated [Mother laughs], one doesnt yet know how to explain it: everyone explains it differently.) He plunged to the very bottom (as for me, I think I know why, but that will be for later). He plunged to the very bottom of the Inconscient: beneath the stone (Mother makes a gesture of immutability, at the very bottom), beneath the mineral; the mineral is already a first awakening of the consciousness. But you have to see it as a whole to understand that its an ascent. If you see human life as it is, the impression is that men become lost in the fall, but thats the result of the Mind; the Mind needed to go through the whole experience, to go down to the very bottom in order to understand everything and bring everything back towards the ascent. For plants, its really an ascent. Thus, according to this vision, there are three movements. But if you see the whole simultaneously, there are only two movements: the first movement is the descent of the Lord into the Inconscient (we cant say anything about that for the moment; once we have emerged from it, well be able to say); the second (the first we can conceive of) is, very, very slowly, through all possible experiences, even the most complete mental denials of the Divine, the ascent towards the Divine. And then, once we have climbed up (Mother makes a gesture of descent), Come, come here: change this prison into the mansion of the Divine.
That will be very good, a very good message for 4.5.67.
0 1967-09-06, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But nothing in the creation that belongs to the mineral world, the plant world, or the animal world, need disappear. There were those monstrous animals: they disappeared materially, but not not the principle of the creation. Its since man came with the mindwhen the mind was twisted, deformed by the adverse forces. That is really ugly.
How can that be dissolved? Torture, for instance, that sort of thing? How can it be dissolved from the earth consciousness so it no longer happens again? How can it be done?
0 1968-01-12, #Agenda Vol 09, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
We may begin by looking at the problem in the wide sense, that of evolution. Species have evolved from the mineral to the plant, to the animal, and on to man. Everything points to the fact that the progress of evolution is not a progress in forms but a progress of consciousness. Forms are only an increasingly fit support for the progress of consciousness. We have reached the human stage, but there is no reason to assume that it is final or supreme (otherwise there would be no evolution), no more than an objective observer one hundred million years ago would have been right to assume that the chameleon or the baboon was the highest term of evolution. We have simply reached the decisive evolutionary stage when we can consciously intervene to accelerate the natural process, which might otherwise require a few more millions of years, with much wastage. Yoga and all spiritual disciplines are ultimately nothing but processes of conscious acceleration of evolution in the true sense.
There may be here some debate on this true sense: some, along with the religions we know, will tell you that the true sense isnt here, but in goodness knows what heaven beyond. Its a point of view, but if this material evolution does not hold its own sense within itself, it means we are in the presence of a sinister farce invented by goodness knows what divine masochist. If God exists, he must be a little less foolish than that, and we are entitled to think that this material evolution has a divine sense and that it is the field of a divine manifestation in Matter. Our spiritual discipline must therefore aim at gaining this divine man or perhaps that other, still unknown being who will emerge from us just as we emerged from hominid infancy. What is the place of the sexual function in this evolution? Until now, the progress of consciousness has made use of the progress of species, which means that sexual reproduction has been the key to the proliferation of species so as to reach the form most fit for the manifestation of consciousness. Since the appearance of man two or three million years ago, Nature hasnt produced new species, as if she had found in man the fittest mode of expression. But evolution cannot remain stagnant, or else it no longer is evolution. So it means that the key of evolution no longer lies in the proliferation of species by means of sexual reproduction, but directly in the very power of consciousness. Before man, consciousness was still too buried in its material support; with man, it has disengaged itself sufficiently to assume its true mastery over material Nature and work out its own mutations by itself. From the standpoint of evolutionary biology, this is the end of sexuality. We have reached the stage at which we can switch from natural evolution through sexual power to spiritual evolution through the power of consciousness. Nature generally does not let organs linger that no longer serve her evolutionary design, so we can foresee that the sexual function will atrophy in those who will be able to channel their energy no longer for reproduction but to develop their consciousness. Quite obviously, not all of us have reached that stage, and for a long time Nature will still need sexual power to pursue her evolution in the midst of the human species, that is to say, to lead the rather brute man we still are to a more conscious man, more capable of grasping the true sense of his evolution, and finally wholly capable of switching from natural to spiritual evolution. The inequality of development in individuals is the obvious reason why we cannot make general rules or hand out infallible prescriptions. To each stage its law. But after however long a time, it is equally obvious that, from the point of view of evolutionary biology, the sexual function comes to its end when it has fulfilled its purpose, that is, when it has succeeded in giving birth to a sufficiently conscious man. So we cannot reasonably base a spiritual discipline of accelerated evolution on a principle that runs counter to evolution. Moreover, anyone who has even barely crossed the difficult line, the point X of the transition from natural to spiritual evolution, cannot but realize that all the pseudo-mystic attempts to prettify the sexual relations between man and woman are shams. I have nothing against sexual relations (God knows!), but trying to coat them with a yogic or mystic phraseology is a deceitful illusion, a self-deception. Therefore, in that sense, there is no key to be recoveredit does not exist.
0 1969-05-10, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Why? Why that habit of suddenly coming apart, why? Of course, its not something new that came with man, because it was the same thing with all that preceded him: it would take form, dissolvetake form, live, grow, and dissolveeverything: plants and The mineral kingdom was more stable by virtue of its unconsciousness (!), but all the rest was like that, constantly taking form, losing form, taking form and losing form again. Then man made a fuss about it, of course, and a drama. He dramatized it, and because he dramatized it he endeavors not to get out of it, but to adjust himselfto understand and adjust himself. And when you are in a certain consciousness, it simply looks like foolishness, nothing else. But why? Is the human body incapable of? Its not even that, I cant even say that. There are minutes (minutes, it doesnt last), minutes when the body feels it has escaped that law [of death]. But it doesnt last; its for one minute, then it passes and things are back as they were. But the body consciousness is beginning to wonder why its like that: Why, why isnt there a growth in light and in consciousness, an indefinite growth? Why? The body itself wonders why. Also, its constantly assailed by all the well, the general corruption; and once in a whileonce in a whilea flash of light, lasting a few seconds: all of a sudden, something else. Something else and a wonderful consciousness, and then the old routine goes on.
Then, people come with all their thoughts. Some come, sit down in front of me, and start thinking, Maybe its the last time I am seeing her! Things of that sort, you understand. So it all comes (gesture like a truckload being dumped), and because of that, its a bit difficult.
0 1969-10-25, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
It must be that. There are innumerable layers of consciousness. The development (the universal development) has progressively enabled us to become conscious of each layer; the more developed one is, the more one perceives the differences between layers. And its only when one is conscious of ALL the layers of consciousness and when they form nothing but a unity (but a unity conscious of its multiplicity), its only then that whats in the deepest depths the Supreme Consciousness can manifest fully. And in bodies, there are still layers that arent fully conscious; there are still layers that remain as a residue of all that preceded: the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, all that. So the whole fully conscious part of the cells is fully illumined, but Besides, one just has to see (Mother shows the skin of her hands, visibly untransformed). It has become EXTREMELY sensitive, the slightest shock causes a It has become extremely sensitive. It appears not to have the same density but the appearance is exactly the same. Those who have an inner vision see something [another form of Mother], but thats only because they have the capacity of inner vision. So thats it [i.e., the residue]. You understand, in the consciousness of the cells, there is the consciousness which is internal to the cells, so to speak, and which is fully, fully conscious, but theres something that remains like this (Mother gestures to show a crust-like covering the residue). So then, that work a man like A.R. hasnt done, you see: its a sort of hazy general consciousness. He himself is conscious of something stronger than his body, and which uses his body, it seems to me. In the world, its very useful and can give birth to all sorts of things. But he isnt ready for the transformation, you understandhimself, his body. He has a sort of inner certitude that it CAN be, but I dont know unless the Lord wants it to take place that way; that would be amusingreally, I would find it very amusing!
Because he speaks of a work of transformation of the cells.
0 1970-03-14, #Agenda Vol 11, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
386Medical Science has been more a curse to mankind than a blessing. It has broken the force of epidemics and unveiled a marvellous surgery; but, also, it has weakened the natural health of man and multiplied individual diseases; it has implanted fear and dependence in the mind and body; it has taught our health to repose not on natural soundness but a rickety and distasteful crutch compact from the mineral and vegetable kingdoms.
Admirable!
03.11 - Modernist Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
To mineral distaste.
In general, however, and as we come down to more and more recent times we find we have missed the track. As in the material field today, we seek to create and achieve by science and organisation, by a Teutonic regimentation, as in the moral life we try to save our souls by attending to rules and regulations, codes and codicils of conduct, even so a like habit and practice we have brought over into our sthetic world. But we must remember that Napoleon became the invincible military genius he was, not because he followed the art of war in accordance with laws and canons set down by military experts; neither did Buddha become the Enlightened because of his scrupulous adherence to the edicts which Asoka engraved centuries later on rocks and pillars, nor was Jesus the Christ because of his being an exemplar of the Sermon on the Mount.
04.03 - Consciousness as Energy, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Consciousness has a fourfold potential. The first is the normal consciousness, which is predominantly mental; it is the sphere comprising movements of which man is usually and habitually aware. It is what the Upanishad names Jgrat or jgaritasthna and characterises as bahipraja: it is the waking state and has cognition only of external things. In other words, the consciousness here is wholly objectivised, externalisedextrovert: it is also a strongly individualised formation, the consciousness is hedged in, isolated and contoured by a protective ring, as it were, of a characteristically separative personality; it is a surface formation, a web made out of day-to-day sensations and thoughts, perceptions and memories, impressions and associations. It is a system of outward actions and reactions against or in the midst of one's actual environment. The second potential is that of the Inner Consciousness: its characteristic is that the consciousness here is no longer trenchantly separative and individual, narrowly and rigidly egoistic. It feels and sees itself as part of or one with the world consciousness. It looks upon its individuality as only a wave of the universal movement. It is also sometimes called the subliminal consciousness; for it plays below or behind the normal surface range of consciousness. It is made up of the residuary powers of the normal consciousness, the abiding vibrations and stresses that settle down and remain in the background and are not immediately required or utilised for life purposes: also it contacts directly energies and movements that well out of the universal life. The phenomena of clairvoyance and clairaudience, the knowledge of the past and the future and of other worlds and persons and beings, certain more dynamic movements such as distant influence and guidance and controlling without any external means, well known in all yogic disciplines, are various manifestations of the power of this Inner Consciousness. But there is not only an outward and an inner consciousness; there is also a deeper or nether consciousness. This is the great field that has been and is being explored by modern psychologists. It is called the subconscious, sometimes also the unconscious: but really it should be named the inconscient, for it is not altogether devoid of consciousness, but is conscious in its own way the consciousness is involved or lost within itself or lies buried. It comprises those movements and impulsions, inclinations and dispositions that have no rational basis, on the contrary, have an irrational basis; they are not acquired or developed by the individual in his normal course of life experience, they are ingrained, lie imbedded in man's nature and are native to his original biological and physical make-up. As the human embryo recapitulates in the womb the whole history of man's animal evolution, even so the normal man, even the most civilised and apparently the farthest from his ancient moorings and sources, enshrines in his cells, in a miraculously living manner, the memory of vast geological epochs, the great struggles and convulsions through which earth and its inhabitants have passed, the basic urges of the crude life force, its hopes, fears, desires, hungers that constitute the rudimental and aboriginal consciousness, the atavism that links the man of today not only to his primitive ancestry but even to the plant worldeven perhaps to the mineral worldout of which his body cells have issued and evolved. Legends and fairy tales, mythologies and fables are a rationalised pattern and picture of the vibrations and urges that moved the original consciousness. It was a collectivea racial and an aboriginal consciousness. The same lies chromosomic, one can almost say, in the constitution of the individual man of today. This region of the unconscious (or the inconscient) is a veritable field of force: it lies at the root of all surface dynamisms. The surface consciousness, jgrat, is a very small portion of the whole, it is only the tip of the pyramid or an iceberg, the major portion lies submerged beyond our normal view. In reflex movements, in sudden unthinking outbursts, in dreams and day-dreams, this undercurrent is silhouetted and made visible and recognisable. Even otherwise, they exercise a profound influence upon all our conscious movements. This underground consciousness is the repository of the most dark and unenlightened elements that grew and flourished in the slime of man's original habitat. They are small, ugly, violent, anti-social, chaotic forces, their names are cruelty, lust, hunger, blind selfishness. Nowhere else than in this domain can the great Upanishadic truth find its fullest applicationHunger that is Death.
But this is the seamy side of Nature, there is also a sunny side. If there is a nadir, there must be a corresponding zenith. In the Vedic image, if man is born of the Dark Mother, he is also a child of the White Mother (ka and vet). Or again, if Earth is our mother, the Heaven is our fatherdyaur me pit mat pthiv iyam. In other words, consciousness extends not in depth alone, but in height alsoit is vertically extended, infinite both ways. As there is a sub-consciousness or unconsciousness, so also there is at the other end super-consciousness.
04.04 - A Global Humanity, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Humanity as a race will then present the figure of a homogeneous unitit will be a unity of many diversified elements, not simply, however, a composition of discrete individuals, but of varied aggregations of individualseven as the body is not merely composed of cells, but also these cells are collected in aggregates forming various limbs and systems, each again with its own identity and function. Indeed, the cosmic or global humanity is very likely to be pyramidal in structurenot a flat and level construction. There will be an overall harmony and integration containing a rich variety of gradationsgradations of consciousness, as even now there are: only the whole will be more luminous, that is to say, more conscious and more concordant; for at the top, on the higher levels, new lights will show themselves and men embodying those lights. They will radiate and spread out, infiltrate into the lower ranges something of their enlightenment and harmony and happiness which will bring about a global purification and a new dispensation; even the material world, the vegetable and mineral domains too may be taken up into this luminous consummation and earth become the Garden of Eden that it once was, suffused with a new glory.
***
08.16 - Perfection and Progress, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
It is evident that the advent of man upon the earth has changed the terrestrial conditions. One cannot say that this has been to the greatest good of all, for it meant much suffering in many places. Also it is evident that the complication which the human being has brought with him into life has not always been favourable to him or to others. But from another point of view it did mean a progress, a marked progress among the lower species. Man mixed himself up with the life of animals, with the life of plants, even with the life of metals and minerals; it was not, as I said, to the great joy of all those with whom he occupied himself; but in any case, their conditions of life were changed by this intervention. In the same way, it is likely that the supramental being, whatever he might be, when he comes, will change considerably the life upon earth. We cherish this hope in our heart and in our mind that all the ills the earth suffers from will be, if not completely cured, at least to a large extent alleviated and that conditions of living here will be more pleasant and harmonious, at least tolerable for all. That is quite possible. In man, the mental consciousness that he embodied acted, by the very force of its nature, for its own satisfaction, for its own growth, without much consideration for the consequences of its actions. The Supramental, on the other hand, will act differently; that is our hope, at least.
Human life, however, is brief and naturally there is a tendency in man to shorten the distances in proportion to his dimensions. Still there will come a time when the thing will happen; there will be a moment or a movement that will at last land into the reality. Once upon a time there came a moment when the mental being could appear upon earth. The start may be poor, very incomplete, very partial, but after all there was the start. Why should not the same thing occur now?
100.00 - Synergy, #Synergetics - Explorations in the Geometry of Thinking, #R Buckminster Fuller, #Science
instance, studying soil minerals without consideration of hydraulics or of plant
genetics. But synergy represents the integrated behaviors instead of all the
1.00b - Introduction, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Below you will find the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms expressed in a symbolic manner.
The female on the left side and the male on the right side are the plus (positive) and the minus (negative) in every human being.
1.00c - DIVISION C - THE ETHERIC BODY AND PRANA, #A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
Forms that are the result of the work of the third and the second Logos, and Their united life. Such forms are the units in the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdoms.
Forms that are the result of the united action of the three Logoi, and comprise the strictly deva and human forms.
1.00e - DIVISION E - MOTION ON THE PHYSICAL AND ASTRAL PLANES, #A Treatise on Cosmic Fire, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
1. The mineral kingdom,
2. The vegetable kingdom,
1.01 - MAPS OF EXPERIENCE - OBJECT AND MEANING, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
and produces lemons, oranges, wine, and, in the mineral kingdom, gold.10
We can barely understand such a description, contaminated as it is in its entirety by imaginative and
1.01 - Necessity for knowledge of the whole human being for a genuine education., #The Essentials of Education, #unset, #Zen
In our modern civilization, we have seen people develop a peculiar attitude toward their own being. For over a century, our civilization has witnessed the ambitious development of natural science and its consequences for humanity; indeed, all of contemporary life has been affected by the knowledge and ideas engendered by natural science. From the perspective of natural science, however, wherever we look and no matter how exactly we observe the mineral king- dom and develop ideas of natures other realms, one thing is clear: although there was close and intimate self-knowledge of human beings in earlier cultural epochs, this is no longer the situation today. Whatever achievements natural science may have brought to humankind, it cannot be applied directly to the human being.
We can ask: What are the laws that govern the development of the world beyond humankind? However, none of the answers come close to the essence of what lives within the limits of the human skin. Answers are so inadequate that people today havent a clue about the ways that external natural processes are actually transformed within the human being through breathing, blood circulation, nutrition, and so on.
1.01 - The Corporeal Being of Man, #Theosophy, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
One learns to know the body of man through the bodily senses. And the way of observing it can differ in no way from that by which one learns to know other objects perceived by the senses. As one observes minerals,
p. 16
plants, animals, so can one observe man also. He is related to these three forms of existence. Like the minerals he builds his body out of the materials in nature; like the plants he grows and propagates his species; he perceives the objects around him and, like the animals, forms on the basis of the impressions they make his inner experiences. One may therefore ascribe to man a mineral, a plant, and an animal existence.
The difference in the structure of minerals, plants, and animals corresponds with these three forms of existence. And it is this structure, this shape which one perceives through the senses, and which alone one can call body. But the human body is different from that of the animal. This difference everybody must recognize whatever may be his opinion in other respects regarding the relationship of man to animals. Even the most radical materialist who denies all soul will not be able to avoid agreeing with the following sentence which Carus utters in his "Organon der Natur and des Geistes". "The finer, inner construction of the nervous system, and especially of the brain, remains as yet an unsolved problem to the
p. 17
physiologist and the anatomist; but that this concentration of the structure increases more and more in the animal, and in man reaches a stage unequaled in any other being, is a fully established fact, a fact which is of the deepest significance in regard to the spiritual evolution of man, of which, indeed, we may frankly say it is a sufficient explanation. Where, therefore, the structure of the brain has not developed properly, where its smallness and poverty show themselves, as in the case of microcephali and idiots, it goes without saying that one can as little expect the appearance of original ideas and of knowledge, as one can expect propagation of species in persons with completely stunted organs of generation. On the other hand, a strong and beautiful construction of the whole person, especially of the brain, will certainly not in itself take the place of genius, but it will at any rate supply the first and indispensable requirement for higher knowledge." Just as one ascribes to the human body the three forms of existence, mineral, plant, animal, one must now ascribe to it yet a fourth, the distinctively human form. Through his mineral form of existence man
p. 18
1.02 - Prana, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
In this universe there is one continuous substance on every plane of existence. Physically this universe is one: there is no difference between the sun and you. The scientist will tell you it is only a fiction to say the contrary. There is no real difference between the table and me; the table is one point in the mass of matter, and I another point. Each form represents, as it were, one whirlpool in the infinite ocean of matter, of which not one is constant. Just as in a rushing stream there may be millions of whirlpools, the water in each of which is different every moment, turning round and round for a few seconds, and then passing out, replaced by a fresh quantity, so the whole universe is one constantly changing mass of matter, in which all forms of existence are so many whirlpools. A mass of matter enters into one whirlpool, say a human body, stays there for a period, becomes changed, and goes out into another, say an animal body this time, from which again after a few years, it enters into another whirlpool, called a lump of mineral. It is a constant change. Not one body is constant. There is no such thing as my body, or your body, except in words. Of the one huge mass of matter, one point is called a moon, another a sun, another a man, another the earth, another a plant, another a mineral. Not one is constant, but everything is changing, matter eternally concreting and disintegrating. So it is with the mind. Matter is represented by the ether; when the action of Prana is most subtle, this very ether, in the finer state of vibration, will represent the mind and there it will be still one unbroken mass. If you can simply get to that subtle vibration, you will see and feel that the whole universe is composed of subtle vibrations. Sometimes certain drugs have the power to take us, while as yet in the senses, to that condition. Many of you may remember the celebrated experiment of Sir Humphrey Davy, when the laughing gas overpowered him how, during the lecture, he remained motionless, stupefied and after that, he said that the whole universe was made up of ideas. For, the time being, as it were, the gross vibrations had ceased, and only the subtle vibrations which he called ideas, were present to him. He could only see the subtle vibrations round him; everything had become thought; the whole universe was an ocean of thought, he and everyone else had become little thought whirlpools.
Thus, even in the universe of thought we find unity, and at last, when we get to the Self, we know that that Self can only be One. Beyond the vibrations of matter in its gross and subtle aspects, beyond motion there is but One. Even in manifested motion there is only unity. These facts can no more be denied. Modern physics also has demonstrated that the sum total of the energies in the universe is the same throughout. It has also been proved that this sum total of energy exists in two forms. It becomes potential, toned down, and calmed, and next it comes out manifested as all these various forces; again it goes back to the quiet state, and again it manifests. Thus it goes on evolving and involving through eternity. The control of this Prana, as before stated, is what is called Pranayama.
1.02 - The Child as growing being and the childs experience of encountering the teacher., #The Essentials of Education, #unset, #Zen
This is also true of spiritual facts. When we speak of the material nature of plants, animals, minerals, or the human physical body, we need to prove our statements through experiment and sense observation. This kind of proof, like the example mentioned, suggests that an object must be supported. In the free realm of the spirit, however, truths support one another. The only validation required is their mutual support. Thus, in representing spiritual reality, every idea needs to be placed clearly within the whole, just as Earth or any other heavenly body moves freely in cosmic space. Truths must support one another. Anyone who tries to understand the spiritual realm must first examine truths coming from other directions, and how they support the one truth through the free activity of their gravitational force of proof, as it were. In this way, that single truth is kept free in the cosmos, just as a heavenly body is supported freely in the cosmos by the countering forces of gravity. We need to develop the capacity to think the spiritual as a fundamental, inner disposition; otherwise, though we may be able to understand and educate the human soul, well remain unable to grasp, cultivate, and educate the spirit that also lives and moves within us as human beings.
The Individuals Entry into the World
1.02 - The Eternal Law, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
If we leave aside the Scriptures for the human mind is so skillful that it can easily dream up sheep grazing on the Empire State building and if we look at the practical disciplines of India, the contradiction becomes even more striking. Indian psychology is based on the very intelligent observation that all things in the universe, from mineral to man, are made up of three elements or qualities (gunas), which may be called by different names depending on the order of reality one considers: tamas, inertia, obscurity, unconsciousness; rajas,
movement, struggle, effort, passion, action; sattva, light, harmony,
1.03 - On Knowledge of the World., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
After you have learned, O student of the divine mysteries, what this world in its meaning really is, it is important that you should look at the world in detail. Every thing in the world of matter which grows, has been included under three classes, animal, vegetable and mineral, which are called the three generations or kingdoms. Animals were created some for riding, some for food, and some for tilling. Vegetables were created to afford food and conveniences to man, and sustenance to various animals. minerals, like gold, silver, copper and iron, were created to serve as instruments to provide means of sustaining life in man. It was designed that by means of these three kingdoms, the spirit of man, while dwelling for a few days in the body, should be employed in making preparation for the future world. Man, however, forgetful of the end for which he had come hither, heedless of the fact that he was soon to depart, and that he would then repent to find that he was going unprepared, became engaged in strife with his fellows about the things of the world, fell in love with its ways, and attempted to gain its wealth. In consequence various qualities began to appear in the heart, such as avarice, envy, ambition and hatred, which are sources of its ruin. Finally the heart, forgetful of the duties for the performance of which it had come in to the world, exhausted all its energies in building up the world.
As man's primary necessities in the world are three, viz : clothing, food and shelter, so the arts of the world are three, viz: weaving, planting and building. The rest of the arts serve either for the purpose of perfecting the others, or for repairing injuries. Thus the spinner aids the work [69] of weaving, the tailor carries out that work to perfection, while the cloth-dresser adds beauty to the work. In the arts, there is need of iron, skins and wood, and for these many instruments are necessary. No person is able to work at all kinds of trades, but by the will of God, upon one is devolved one art and upon another two, and the whole community is made dependent, one member upon the other. When avarice, ambition and covetousness hold sway in the hearts of men, because some are not pleased to see others obtain honors, and because they do not endeavor to quell their wants, envy and hatred arise among them. Each one, dissatisfied with his own rights, plots against the property and honor of his fellows. On this account there was a necessity for three farther distinctions, viz: sovereignty, judicial authority, and jurisprudence, which contains the digest of the law. But alas ! poor and wretched man coming under the influence of all these causes, motives and instruments, spends his life in collecting wealth and lays up for himself sources of regret. And just as the pilgrim, who on his way to the Kaaba of Mecca, was engaged day and night in taking care of his camel, got separated from the caravan, and perished in the desert, so those who know not the real nature of the world and its worthlessness, and do not understand that it is the place where seed is sown for eternity, but spend all their thoughts upon it, are certainly fascinated and deceived; as the apostle of God declares. "The world is more enchanting than Harout and Marout: let men beware of it."1
1.03 - THE EARTH IN ITS EARLY STAGES, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
' mineral world '.
The mineral world is a much more supple and mobile world
than could be imagined by the science of the ancients. Vaguely
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tion of a mineral species.
But it is a world relatively poor in compounds, because of the
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istic of minerals (as of so many other organisms that have become
incurably fixed) to have chosen a road which closed them pre-
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far surpasses the variety of mineral compounds, it concerns such
a tiny part of the substance of the earth that we are instinctively
1.03 - The Tale of the Alchemist Who Sold His Soul, #The Castle of Crossed Destinies, #Italo Calvino, #Fiction
We could believe that, from his earliest youth (this was the meaning of the portrait with adolescent features, which could at the same time allude also to the elixir of long life) he had had no other passion (the fountain remained nevertheless an amorous symbol) save the manipulation of the elements, and for years he had waited to see the yellow king of the mineral world precipitate in the depths of his cauldron. And in this quest he had finally sought the counsel and aid of those women sometimes encountered in forests, experts in philters and magic potions, devoted to the arts of witchcraft and foretelling the future (like the woman he indicated, with superstitious reverence, as The Popess).
The card that came next, The Emperor, could naturally refer to a prophecy of the forest witch: You will become the most powerful man in the world.
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(In The Wheel of Fortune, if you looked carefully, the bestial metamorphoses seemed perhaps only the first step in a regression of the human to the vegetable and mineral.)
"Are you afraid our souls will fall into the Devil's hands?" those of the City must have asked.
1.04 - Body, Soul and Spirit, #Theosophy, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
The human body has a construction adapted to thinking. The same materials and forces which are present in the mineral kingdom are
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so combined in the human body that by means of these combinations thought can manifest itself. This mineral construction, formed as a suitable instrument for its work, will be called in the following pages the physical body of man. (In theosophical literature it is called "Sthula sharira.")
This organized mineral construction with the brain as its center comes into existence by propagation, and reaches its developed form through growth. Propagation and growth man has in common with plants and animals. Propagation and growth distinguish what is living from the lifeless mineral. What lives comes forth from the living by means of the germ. The descendant follows the forefa thers in the succession of the living. The forces through which a mineral originates we must look for in the materials themselves which compose it. A quartz crystal is formed by the forces united in it, and inherent in the silicon and oxygen. The forces which shape an oak tree we must look for in a roundabout way in the germ in the mother and father plants. The form of the oak is preserved through propagation from forefa thers to
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descendants. There are inner determining forces innate in all that is living. It was a crude view of nature which held that lower animals, even fishes, could evolve out of mud. The form of the living passes itself on by means of heredity. The manner in which a living being develops depends on what father and mother beings it has sprung from or, in other words, on the species to which it belongs. The materials of which it is composed change continually; the species remains during life, and is transmitted to the descendants. Thus the species is that which conditions the organizing and molding of the materials. This species-forming force will here be called life-force (in theosophical literature it is called "Prana"). Just as the mineral forces express themselves in crystals, so the life-force expresses itself in the species or form of plant and animal life.
The mineral forces are perceived by man by means of the bodily senses. And he can only perceive that for which he has such senses. Without the eye there is no perception of light, without the ear no perception of sound. The lowest order of organic beings has only a
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kind of sense of touch. For these there exist only those mineral forces of which the sense of touch enables them to become aware. In proportion as the other senses are developed in the higher animals is the surrounding world richer and more varied for them. It depends, therefore, on the organs of a being whether that which exists in the outer world exists also for the being itself, as perception, as sensation. What is present in the air as a certain motion becomes in man the sensation of hearing. Man does not perceive the manifestations of the life-force through the ordinary senses. He sees the colors of the plants; he smells their perfume; the life-force remains hidden from this form of observation. But the ordinary senses have just as little right to deny the existence of the life-force as has the man born blind to deny that colors exist. Colors are there for the person born blind just as soon as he has been operated upon; in the same way, the life-force, as creating the various species of plants and animals created by it, is present to man as an object of perception as soon as the necessary organ unfolds within him. An entirely new world opens out to man through
p. 27
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being, one requires the awakened "spiritual eye." Without this, one can accept its existence as a fact on logical grounds; but one can see it with the spiritual eye as one sees a color with the physical eye. One should not take offense at the expression "ether-body." "Ether" here designates something different from the hypothetical ether of the physicist. One should regard the thing simply as a name for what is described here. And just as the physical body of man is constructed in conformity with its set task, so is it also in conformity with the ether-body of man. One can understand it also only when one observes it in relation to the thinking spirit. The ether-body of man differs from that of plants and animals through being organized so as to serve the requirements of the thinking spirit. Just as man belongs to the mineral world through his physical body, he belongs through his ether-body to the life-world. After death the physical body dissolves into the mineral world, the ether-body into the life-world. (In theosophical literature the human ether-body is called "Linga sharira.") By the word "body" is designated what in any way gives a
p. 29
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The sentient-soul depends, as regards its activity, on the ether-body because it draws from it that which it will cause to gleam forth as sensation. And since the ether-body is the life within the physical body, the sentient-soul is indirectly dependent on the latter. Only with correctly-functioning and well-constructed eyes are correct color sensations possible. It is in this way that the corporality affects the sentient-soul. The latter is thus determined and limited in its efficaciousness by the body. It lives therefore within the limitations fixed for it by the corporality. The body accordingly is built up of mineral materials, is vitalized by the ether-body, and itself limits the sentient-soul. He, therefore, who has the above-mentioned organ for "seeing" the sentient-soul, sees it limited by the body. But the limits of the sentient-soul do not coincide with those of the physical body. The soul extends somewhat beyond it. By this one sees that it proves itself more powerful than the physical body. But the force through which its limits are set proceeds from the physical body. So that between the physical body and the ether-body on the one hand,
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[paragraph continues] In this way he enlightens himself regarding the outside world. The child that has burnt itself thinks it over, and reaches the thought "fire burns." Also man does not follow blindly his impulses, instincts, passions; his thought over them brings about the opportunity by which he can gratify them. What one calls material civilization moves entirely in this direction. It consists in the services which thinking renders to the sentient-soul. Immeasureable quantities of thought-power are directed to this end. It is thought-power that has built ships, railways, telegraphs, telephones; and by far the greatest proportion of all this serves only to satisfy the needs of the sentient-soul. Thought-force permeates the sentient-soul in a similar way to that in which the life-force permeates the physical body. Life-force connects the physical body with forefa thers and descendants, and thus brings it under a system of laws with which the purely mineral body is in no way concerned. In the same way thought-force brings the soul under a system of laws to which it does not belong as mere sentient-soul. Through the sentient-soul man is related to the animals.
p. 35
--
it may be filled by it. The I lives in body and soul; but the spirit lives in the I. And what there is of spirit in the I is eternal. For the I receives its nature and significance from that with which it is bound up. Inasmuch as it lives in the physical body, it is subject to the laws of the mineral world; through its ether-body to the laws of propagation and growth; by virtue of the sentient and intellectual souls to the laws of the soul world; in so far as it receives the spiritual into itself it is subject to the laws of the spirit. That which the mineral laws and the life laws construct comes into being and vanishes; but the spirit has nothing to do with becoming and perishing.
The I lives in the soul. Although the highest manifestation of the I belongs to the consciousness-soul, one must nevertheless say that this I, raying out from it, fills the whole of the soul, and through the soul affects the body. And in the I the spirit is alive. It rays into it and lives in it as in a "sheath" or veil, just as the I lives in its sheaths, the body and the soul. The spirit develops the I from within, outward; the mineral world develops it from without, inward. The spirit forming
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1.04 - Sounds, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
English, French, or American prints, ginghams, muslins, &c., gathered from all quarters both of fashion and poverty, going to become paper of one color or a few shades only, on which forsooth will be written tales of real life, high and low, and founded on fact! This closed car smells of salt fish, the strong New England and commercial scent, reminding me of the Grand Banks and the fisheries. Who has not seen a salt fish, thoroughly cured for this world, so that nothing can spoil it, and putting the perseverance of the saints to the blush? with which you may sweep or pave the streets, and split your kindlings, and the teamster shelter himself and his lading against sun wind and rain behind it,and the trader, as a Concord trader once did, hang it up by his door for a sign when he commences business, until at last his oldest customer cannot tell surely whether it be animal, vegetable, or mineral, and yet it shall be as pure as a snowflake, and if it be put into a pot and boiled, will come out an excellent dun fish for a Saturdays dinner.
Next Spanish hides, with the tails still preserving their twist and the angle of elevation they had when the oxen that wore them were careering over the pampas of the Spanish main,a type of all obstinacy, and evincing how almost hopeless and incurable are all constitutional vices. I confess, that practically speaking, when I have learned a mans real disposition, I have no hopes of changing it for the better or worse in this state of existence. As the Orientals say, A curs tail may be warmed, and pressed, and bound round with ligatures, and after a twelve years labor bestowed upon it, still it will retain its natural form. The only effectual cure for such inveteracies as these tails exhibit is to make glue of them, which I believe is what is usually done with them, and then they will stay put and stick. Here is a hogshead of molasses or of brandy directed to John Smith,
1.04 - The Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
with zoology and mineralogy than with the existence of an his-
torical consensus omnium in regard to the object in question.
1.05 - CHARITY, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Our present economic, social and international arrangements are based, in large measure, upon organized lovelessness. We begin by lacking charity towards Nature, so that instead of trying to co-operate with Tao or the Logos on the inanimate and subhuman levels, we try to dominate and exploit, we waste the earths mineral resources, ruin its soil, ravage its forests, pour filth into its rivers and poisonous fumes into its air. From lovelessness in relation to Nature we advance to lovelessness in relation to arta lovelessness so extreme that we have effectively killed all the fundamental or useful arts and set up various kinds of mass production by machines in their place. And of course this lovelessness in regard to art is at the same time a lovelessness in regard to the human beings who have to perform the fool-proof and grace-proof tasks imposed by our mechanical art-surrogates and by the interminable paper work connected with mass production and mass distribution. With mass-production and mass-distribution go mass-financing, and the three have conspired to expropriate ever-increasing numbers of small owners of land and productive equipment, thus reducing the sum of freedom among the majority and increasing the power of a minority to exercise a coercive control over the lives of their fellows. This coercively controlling minority is composed of private capitalists or governmental bureaucrats or of both classes of bosses acting in collaborationand, of course, the coercive and therefore essentially loveless nature of the control remains the same, whether the bosses call themselves company directors or civil servants. The only difference between these two kinds of oligarchical rulers is that the first derive more of their power from wealth than from position within a conventionally respected hierarchy, while the second derive more power from position than from wealth. Upon this fairly uniform groundwork of loveless relationships are imposed others, which vary widely from one society to another, according to local conditions and local habits of thought and feeling. Here are a few examples: contempt and exploitation of coloured minorities living among white majorities, or of coloured majorities governed by minorities of white imperialists; hatred of Jews, Catholics, Free Masons or of any other minority whose language, habits, appearance or religion happens to differ from those of the local majority. And the crowning superstructure of uncharity is the organized lovelessness of the relations between state and sovereign statea lovelessness that expresses itself in the axiomatic assumption that it is right and natural for national organizations to behave like thieves and murderers, armed to the teeth and ready, at the first favourable opportunity, to steal and kill. (Just how axiomatic is this assumption about the nature of nationhood is shown by the history of Central America. So long as the arbitrarily delimited territories of Central America were called provinces of the Spanish colonial empire, there was peace between their inhabitants. But early in the nineteenth century the various administrative districts of the Spanish empire broke from their allegiance to the mother country and decided to become nations on the European model. Result: they immediately went to war with one another. Why? Because, by definition, a sovereign national state is an organization that has the right and duty to coerce its members to steal and kill on the largest possible scale.)
Lead us not into temptation must be the guiding principle of all social organization, and the temptations to be guarded against and, so far as possible, eliminated by means of appropriate economic and political arrangements are temptations against charity, that is to say, against the disinterested love of God, Nature and man. First, the dissemination and general acceptance of any form of the Perennial Philosophy will do something to preserve men and women from the temptation to idolatrous worship of things in timechurch-worship, state-worship, revolutionary future-worship, humanistic self-worship, all of them essentially and necessarily opposed to charity. Next come decentralization, widespread private ownership of land and the means of production on a small scale, discouragement of monopoly by state or corporation, division of economic and political power (the only guarantee, as Lord Acton was never tired of insisting, of civil liberty under law). These social rearrangements would do much to prevent ambitious individuals, organizations and governments from being led into the temptation of behaving tyrannously; while co-operatives, democratically controlled professional organizations and town meetings would deliver the masses of the people from the temptation of making their decentralized individualism too rugged. But of course none of these intrinsically desirable reforms can possibly be carried out, so long as it is thought right and natural that sovereign states should prepare to make war on one another. For modern war cannot be waged except by countries with an over-developed capital goods industry; countries in which economic power is wielded either by the state or by a few monopolistic corporations which it is easy to tax and, if necessary, temporarily to nationalize; countries where the labouring masses, being without property, are rootless, easily transferable from one place to another, highly regimented by factory discipline. Any decentralized society of free, uncoerced small owners, with a properly balanced economy must, in a war-making world such as ours, be at the mercy of one whose production is highly mechanized and centralized, whose people are without property and therefore easily coercible, and whose economy is lop-sided. This is why the one desire of industrially undeveloped countries like Mexico and China is to become like Germany, or England, or the United States. So long as the organized lovelessness of war and preparation for war remains, there can be no mitigation, on any large, nation-wide or world-wide scale, of the organized lovelessness of our economic and political relationships. War and preparation for war are standing temptations to make the present bad, God-eclipsing arrangements of society progressively worse as technology becomes progressively more efficient.
1.05 - Some Results of Initiation, #Knowledge of the Higher Worlds, #Rudolf Steiner, #Theosophy
Now, the particles of the etheric body are in continual motion. Countless currents stream through it in every direction. By these currents, life itself is maintained and regulated. Every body that has life, including animals and plants, possesses an etheric body. Even in minerals traces of it can be observed. These currents and movements are, to begin with, independent of human will and consciousness, just as the action of the
p. 165
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A completely new life opens out before the student when the development of his etheric body begins in the way described above, and at the proper time, in the course of his training, he must receive that enlightenment which enables him to adapt himself to this new existence. The sixteen-petalled lotus, for instance, enables him to perceive spiritual figures of a higher world. He must learn now how different these figures can be when caused by different objects or beings. In the first place, he must notice that his own thoughts and feelings exert a powerful influence on certain of these figures, on others little or no influence. One kind of figure alters immediately if the observer, upon seeing it, says to himself: "that is beautiful," and then in the course of his observation changes this thought to: "that is useful." It is characteristic of the forms proceeding from minerals or from artificial objects that they change
p. 177
under the influence of every thought and every feeling directed upon them by the observer. This applies in a lesser degree to the forms belonging to plants, and still less to those corresponding to animals. These figures, too, are full of life and motion, but this motion is only partially due to the influence of human thoughts and feelings; in other respects it is produced by causes which are beyond human influence. Now, there appears within this whole world a species of form which remains almost entirely unaffected by human influence. The student can convince himself that these forms proceed neither from minerals nor from artificial objects, nor, again, from plants or animals. To gain complete understanding, he must study those forms which he can realize to have proceeded from the feelings, instincts, and passions of human beings. Yet he can find that these forms too are influenced by his own thoughts and feelings, if only to a relatively small extent. But there always remains a residuum of forms in this world upon which such influences are negligible. Indeed, at the outset of this career the student can perceive little beyond this residuum. He can only discover its nature by observing
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1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
The principles of traditional alchemy that is, the growth of minerals, the transmutation of metals,
the Elixir, and the obligation to secrecy were not contested in the period of the Renaissance and the
--
created things, minerals included, draw their strength from the earth-spirit. This spirit is life, it is
nourished by the stars, and it gives nourishment to all the living things it shelters in its womb. Through
the spirit received from on high, the earth hatches the minerals in her womb as the mother her unborn
child. This invisible spirit is like the reflection in a mirror, intangible, yet it is at the same time the root
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are crude; not ripe. In other words, Natures final goal is the completion of the mineral kingdom, its
ultimate maturation. The natural transmutation of metals into gold is inscribed in their destiny. The
--
final goal, to attain her ideal, which is the perfection of its progeny be it mineral, animal or human
to its supreme ripening, which is absolute immortality and liberty....604
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Eliade comments. Even in the eighteenth century, the leamed did not question the growth of minerals. They asked
themselves, however, whether alchemy could assist nature in this process, and above all whether those alchemists who
1.05 - The Magical Control of the Weather, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
of drugs and minerals, the causes of rain and drought, of thunder
and lightning, the changes of the seasons, the phases of the moon,
1.05 - Vishnu as Brahma creates the world, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
[3]: This is not to be confounded with elementary creation, although the description would very well apply to that of crude nature, or Pradhāna; but, as will be seen presently, we have here to do with final productions, or the forms in which the previously created elements and faculties are more or less perfectly aggregated. The first class of these forms is here said to be immovable things; that is, the mineral and vegetable kingdoms; for the solid earth, with its mountains and rivers and seas, was already prepared for their reception. The 'fivefold' immovable creation is indeed, according to the comment, restricted to vegetables, five orders of which are enumerated, or, 1. trees; 2. shrubs; 3. climbing plants; 4. creepers; and 5. grasses.
[4]: Tiryak, 'crooked;' and Srotas, 'a canal.'
1.07 - Cybernetics and Psychopathology, #Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, #Norbert Wiener, #Cybernetics
for transferring water and minerals from the roots to the leaves,
and the products of photosynthesis from the leaves to the roots;
1.07 - The Literal Qabalah (continued), #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Harmony on page 61 was the Sun. It is quite obvious, of course, that we are completely dependent on the solar orb and on its life-giving heat and vitality for our very existence. There could be not the slightest manifestation of life at all on this globe - at least no form of life as we know life ; no mineral kingdom, none of the exuberant and luxuriant vegetation which we love so dearly, no animal life of any description - were we cut off in some
way from the rays of our parent Sun, with all its sustenance and warmth.
1.08 - Civilisation and Barbarism, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The Self of man is a thing hidden and occult; it is not his body, it is not his life, it is noteven though he is in the scale of evolution the mental being, the Manu,his mind. Therefore neither the fullness of his physical, nor of his vital, nor of his mental nature can be either the last term or the true standard of his self-realisation; they are means of manifestation, subordinate indications, foundations of his self-finding, values, practical currency of his self, what you will, but not the thing itself which he secretly is and is obscurely groping or trying overtly and self-consciously to become. Man has not possessed as a race this truth about himself, does not now possess it except in the vision and self-experience of the few in whose footsteps the race is unable to follow, though it may adore them as Avatars, seers, saints or prophets. For the Oversoul who is the master of our evolution, has his own large steps of Time, his own great eras, tracts of slow and courses of rapid expansion, which the strong, semi-divine individual may overleap, but not the still half-animal race. The course of evolution proceeding from the vegetable to the animal, from the animal to the man, starts in the latter from the subhuman; he has to take up into him the animal and even the mineral and vegetable: they constitute his physical nature, they dominate his vitality, they have their hold upon his mentality. His proneness to many kinds of inertia, his readiness to vegetate, his attachment to the soil and clinging to his roots, to safe anchorages of all kinds, and on the other hand his nomadic and predatory impulses, his blind servility to custom and the rule of the pack, his mob-movements and openness to subconscious suggestions from the group-soul, his subjection to the yoke of rage and fear, his need of punishment and reliance on punishment, his inability to think and act for himself, his incapacity for true freedom, his distrust of novelty, his slowness to seize intelligently and assimilate, his downward propensity and earthward gaze, his vital and physical subjection to his heredity, all these and more are his heritage from the subhuman origins of his life and body and physical mind. It is because of this heritage that he finds self-exceeding the most difficult of lessons and the most painful of endeavours. Yet it is by exceeding of the lower self that Nature accomplishes the great strides of her evolutionary process. To learn by what he has been, but also to know and increase to what he can be, is the task that is set for the mental being.
The time is passing away, permanentlylet us hope for this cycle of civilisation, when the entire identification of the self with the body and the physical life was possible for the general consciousness of the race. That is the primary characteristic of complete barbarism. To take the body and the physical life as the one thing important, to judge manhood by the physical strength, development and prowess, to be at the mercy of the instincts which rise out of the physical inconscient, to despise knowledge as a weakness and inferiority or look on it as a peculiarity and no necessary part of the conception of manhood, this is the mentality of the barbarian. It tends to reappear in the human being in the atavistic period of boyhood,when, be it noted, the development of the body is of the greatest importance,but to the adult man in civilised humanity it is ceasing to be possible. For, in the first place, by the stress of modern life even the vital attitude of the race is changing. Man is ceasing to be so much of a physical and becoming much more of a vital and economic animal. Not that he excludes or is intended to exclude the body and its development or the right maintenance of and respect for the animal being and its excellences from his idea of life; the excellence of the body, its health, its soundness, its vigour and harmonious development are necessary to a perfect manhood and are occupying attention in a better and more intelligent way than before. But the first rank in importance can no longer be given to the body, much less that entire predominance assigned to it in the mentality of the barbarian.
1.08 - Origin of Rudra: his becoming eight Rudras, #Vishnu Purana, #Vyasa, #Hinduism
"There was formerly a peak of Meru, named Sāvitra, abounding with gems, radiant as the sun, and celebrated throughout the three worlds; of immense extent, and difficult of access, and an object of universal veneration. Upon that glorious eminence, rich with mineral treasures, as upon a splendid couch, the deity Śiva reclined, accompanied by the daughter of the sovereign of mountains, and attended by the mighty Ādityas, the powerful Vasus, and by the heavenly physicians, the sons of Asvinī; by Kuvera, surrounded by his train of Guhyakas, the lord of the Yakṣas, who dwells on Kailāsa. There also was the great Muni Usanas: there, were Ṛṣis of the first order, with Sanatkumāra at their head; divine Ṛṣis, preceded by A
giras; Viśvavasu, with his bands of heavenly choristers; the sages Nārada and Pārvata; and innumerable troops of celestial nymphs. The breeze blew upon the mountain, bland, pure, and fragrant; and the trees were decorated with flowers, that blossomed in every season. The Vidyādharas and Siddhas, affluent in devotion, waited upon Mahādeva, the lord of living creatures; and many other beings, of various forms, did him homage. Rākṣasas of terrific semblance, and Pisācas of great strength, of different shapes and features, armed with various weapons, and blazing like fire, were delighted to be present, as the followers of the god. There stood the royal Nandī, high in the favour of his lord, armed with a fiery trident, shining with inherent lustre; and there the best of rivers, Ga
11.02 - The Golden Life-line, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Viewed from another standpoint this harking back to the past, to the roots, as we say, is the greatest obstacle to human progress. Man progresses, indeed the whole creation advances, by breaking with the past. The leap from the mineral to the plant, from the inorganic to the organic, is the first and most significant break. Even so, are the progressive breaks from the plant to the animal and from the animal to man. In man too similar progressive, that is, radically progressive steps or leaps are recognisable. The ape man without tools and the first man with tools mark very different stages in human consciousness and life. And we have carried on more or less the same manner of progression till today. But against this forward movement of nature, there is a counter-pull backward. The principle of inertia, of standing still, is of the very nature of matter, the basic fact of creation. The force of gravity, earth's pull, does not allow you to shoot up; it brings you down, and if you stand erect, the innate tendency of the body is to sit down or lie flat, 'obedient to the earth's attraction. This physical inertia acts also upon the mind, including the vital consciousness. This is translated in the consciousness as an attachment to the past, to what man has been familiar with. Conservation is the term in respect of physical Nature and atavism is its expression in human nature.
It is so difficult for man to leave the beaten track, for that means risk and danger; our thoughts and movements are all shaped in the mould of the past, we carry out what old habits have instructed us; any new thought, any new act we happen to come across we seek to link it to an antecedent or precedent, similar in kind or form. It is a never-ending succession, a causal chain that makes up our life, the present being always produced by its past. That means the present, and so also the future, is only another form or term of the past. What is not in the past is not in the present or the future, that is to say, such is the constitution of our consciousness and nature: there is a natural and inevitable faith and trust in the past, an extension of the past; there is only apprehension for the future, uncertainty in the present.1 It was Buddha's signal achievement to uncover this great illusion, the illusion of an inexhaustible and inexorably continuing past, continuing into the present and into the future. He saw that to be is not continuity but a sequence of discrete moments (and events). It is ignorance that finds a link between these entities; they are in reality absolutely separate and distinct from each other. If you can wake up from this ignorance as from a dream you will find they 'all disintegrate and disperse and end in nothing. The only reality is that Nothing. Shankara however says that it is not mere Nothing but Pure Existence, instead of an illusion of existences you have the original Existence, the absolute existence.
11.05 - The Ladder of Unconsciousness, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Likewise unconsciousness too has its own various degrees. As consciousness rises up to higher and higher grades of consciousness, so unconsciousness too descends into lower and lower grades of unconsciousness. The first degree of unconsciousness is simple forgetfulness. It is the absence of consciousness, not the loss of consciousness. The consciousness is there but it is not apparent or expressed, it is held back for the time. One can recall it; it can be remembered and brought forward. The abeyance of consciousness, when it persists, when it amounts to a turn of nature, is called ignorance. Yet ignorance is not the negation of consciousness, it is clouded or veiled consciousness; it is not that the sun is set and gone but simply that it is behind the clouds, it is up in the sky but shrouded. This behind-the-veil consciousness is the subliminal consciousness or simply sub-consciousness. Sub-consciousness is a consciousness that is not dormant or asleep, stilled into silence, it is at work but behind the normal waking state It is the swapna-state as the Indian sages termed it. Lower down is the state of unconsciousness proper. It is a still more diminished degree of consciousness, apparently a total absence of consciousness, not merely an abeyance or subsidence of consciousness, it is a lack of consciousness. The animal consciousness might be taken as an instance or expression of the ignorant consciousness, likewise the plant consciousness parallels the subliminal consciousness the Indian description of it is antapraja. Next to it is the consciousness in the mineral, it is unconsciousness. By unconsciousness it is meant here naturally the absence of the mental consciousness: the presence or absence of consciousness means the presence or absence of the mental consciousness. There is a generic consciousness, consciousness in itself, or pure consciousness, which is imbedded in all created things, for creation itself is at bottom a vibration or pulsation of consciousness (vijana-vijmbhaam). There is a range or rung still further below with a still lesser degree of consciousness: it is called the inconscient, which is a totally total, in depth and in extent, absence of consciousness. In the other degree that is above it, there is the probability of consciousness in the midst of apparent absence, here it is reduced almost to nothingness or to just a possibility: for, as I have said, some consciousness, the presence of Sachchidananda is always there everywhere in the core of things. Yet there is also an absolute negation and this has been termed Nescience, it is the zero of things, where there is no question of possibility or impossibility: it is the final and definite end, sunyam of the Buddhists, termed asat by the Vedantists.
Now, the curious and most interesting thing is that the end is not the end of things; for beyond the zero there is the minus sign and what does minus mean? I t does not mean mere negation, it means a realitya negative real. It is a moot problem in philosophyphilosophers have questioned, argued, discussed at length about itwhether negation means only denial, just the contrary of affirmation. If affirmation means a real, negation means simply the unreal. It has been declared by competent authorities that negation, like affirmation, is also a reality but of the opposite sign. We know in mathematics the minus sign is as real as the plus.
1.10 - The Roughly Material Plane or the Material World, #Initiation Into Hermetics, #Franz Bardon, #Occultism
In this chapter I will not describe the roughly material world, the kingdoms of minerals, vegetables and animals, nor will I deal with the physical processes in nature, because everybody has already learned at school that there are such things as the north and south poles, how rain originates, how storms are brought about, etc. The incipient adept might not be so very interested in these occurrences, but he will rather endeavour to know all about the material world by means of the elements and their polarities. It is needless to mention that on our planet, there are fire, water, air and earth, a fact absolutely clear to each reasonably thinking person. Notwithstanding, it will be very useful, if the adept becomes acquainted with the cause and effect of the four elements and knows how to use them correctly, according to the corresponding analogies on the other planes. How it is possible to contact higher planes through knowing the grossly material elements, will be reserved to a further chapter dealing with the practical use of magic. At the moment, it is important to know that of our earth the working of elements in the subtlest form is evolving off in exactly the same manner as in the human body. By drawing analogies to the human body, one will certainly find out how to draw the parallel to the elements, and state that the analogy with the human body seems justified. In the chapter relative to the human body we have been discussing the mode of life and the functions of the elements, with respect to the body and, if the adept succeeds in using the elements in the most subtle form, he will already be able to achieve wondrous things on his own body, and not only this, he can, in all conscience, affirm that nothing is impossible in this respect.
The earthy element implies the four-pole magnet with its polarity and the effect of the other elements. The fiery principle, in its active form, causes the vivifying principle in nature and in the negative form the destructive and disintegrating one. The principle of water, in its negative form, is operating the contrary effect. The principle of air, with its bipolar polarity, represents the neutral, the balancing and the preserving essence in nature. The earthy element, according to its peculiarity of cohesion, has as a basis the two great fundamental elements of fire and water together with the neutralization of the airy principle. Hence it must be regarded as the most grossly material element. By the interaction of the fiery and the watery element, we have, as already mentioned in connection with the body, got the magnetic and the electric fluid, the two basic fluids originating, according to the same laws, in the body and having their mutual effects. Both these elements, with their fluids, are the cause of all that happens materially on our earth; they influence all the chemical processes inside and outside of the earth in the kingdoms of minerals, plants and animals. Hence you see that the electric fluid is to be found in the centre of the earth, whereas the magnetic one is on the surface of our earth. This magnetic fluid of the earth surface, apart from the property of the principle of water or the cohesion, attracts and holds all material and compound things.
According to the specific properties of a body, which depend on the composition of the elements, each object, with respect to the electric fluid, owns certain emanations, the so-called electronic vibrations that are attracted by the general magnetic fluid of the entire material world. This attraction is called the weight. Consequently, weight is an appearance of the attractive power of the earth. The well known attractive power of iron and nickel is a little example respecting an imitation of that which is happening, in a big measure, on our whole earth. What we understand, on our earth, a magnetism and electricity, is nothing else but an appearance of the four-pole magnet. For, as we know already, by an arbitrary pole-changing, electricity can be obtained from magnetism and, in a mechanical way, we get magnetism through electricity. The transmutation of one power into another, properly speaking, is already an alchemistic or magic process, which, however, in the course of time, has been generalized so much that it is no longer regarded as alchemy or magic, but is simply ascribed to physics. For this reason, it is obvious that the four-pole magnet can be used here also.
11.15 - Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Now, Sri Aurobindo says, evolution marches onward and will rise beyond mind to another status of consciousness which he calls Supermind. In the earthly scheme there will thus manifest a new type, a higher functioning of consciousness and a new race or species will appear on earth with this new consciousness as the ruling principle. Out of the rock and mineral came the plant, out of the plant the animal, out of the mere animal man has come and out of man the Superman will come inevitably.
Standing on the mental plane, immured within the dimensions of Reason and mental intelligence, it is not easy to contemplate the type of consciousness that will be; even as it was difficult for the ape to envisage the advent of his successor, man. But certain characteristic signs, rudimentary or fragmentary movements of the higher status are visible in the mental consciousness even as it is: the ape likewise was not without a glimmer of Reason and logic, even the faculty of ratiocination that seems to be the exclusive property of man. There is, for example, a movement we call Intuition, so different from Reason to which even Scientists and Mathematicians acknowledge their debt of gratitude for so many of their discoveries and inventions. There is also the other analogous movement called Inspiration that rules the poet and the artist disclosing to them a world of beauty and reality that is not available to the normal human consciousness. Again, there is yet another group of human beings at the top of the ladder of evolutionmystics and sageswho see the truth, possess the truth direct through a luminous immediacy of perception, called Revelation. Now, all these functionings of consciousness that happen frequently enough within the domain of normal humanity are still expressions of a higher mode of consciousness: they are not the product or play of Reason or logical intelligence which marks the character, the differentia of human consciousness.
1.11 - The Change of Power, #On the Way to Supermanhood, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
In fact, the first effect of Truth as it touches a new layer is to produce a frightful disorder, or so it seems. The first effects of mental truth when it touched the primates must have been traumatic, we can assume, and utterly subversive of the simian order and effectiveness; a peasant has only to take a book for the first time for all his bucolic peace to be upset and his sound and simple notion of things to be thrown into turmoil. Truth is a great disturber. Indeed if it were not there to goad and press on the world, the stone would have forever remained in its mineral bliss and man in his satisfied economy which is why no supereconomy, no acme of political ingenuity, no perfection of egalitarianism or distribution of human wealth, nor even any paroxysm of charity and philanthropy can ever satisfy the heart of man and halt the irresistible onrush of Truth. Truth can only stop at the totality of Truth the totality of Joy and Harmony in each particle and the entire universe although it will not stop anywhere, for Truth is infinite and its marvels inexhaustible. We tend quite naturally and anthropocentrically to declare that we make great efforts to attain light and truth, and this and that, but it may be presumptuousness on our part, and the lotus seed rises inevitably toward the light, wrenches itself free from the mud and bursts open in the sunshine, in spite of all its efforts to become, say, a water lily or a supertulip and that Sun presses and presses, churns and kneads and ferments its rebellious soil, brings its chemical ingredients to a boil and breaks the husk, till everything is returned to its ultimate beauty, in spite of all our efforts to become, say, just a social and intelligent fellow. The great Sun of evolution presses upon its world, cracking its old molds, fermenting the heresies of the future and bringing to a boil the pale canned wisdoms of the mental legislators. Was there ever a more desperate time, more empty, more dreadfully confined in its flimsy triumphs and enameled virtues than the so-called belle poque? But that enamel is cracking, and so much the better; all our virtues and mental certainties and fantasies of a great economic Disneyl and on earth are crumbling, and again, so much the better. Truth, the great Harmony to be, is mercilessly tightening its screw on our intellectual helmets, exposing each speck of dirt, each weakness, drawing out the poison and churning its humanity, like the ocean of unconsciousness of the Puranic legends, until it yields all its nectar of immortality.
And the seeker discovers on his own small scale, in the microcosm he represents that the Harmony of the new world, the new consciousness he has touched gropingly, is a tremendous transforming Power. In the past, it may have chanted up above, produced lovely poems and cathedrals of wisdom and beauty, but when it touches matter, it takes on the austere face of the angry Mother, thrashing her children and sculpting them mercilessly into the image of her own demanding Rectitude and compassion, the infinite grace that stops just in time, administers just the necessary does and does not inflict one ounce of suffering more than is indispensable. When the seeker begins to open his eyes to this Compassion, this infinite wisdom in the minutest detail, these unbelievable detours to achieve a fuller and more encompassing perfection, these studied obscurities and concerted rebellions, these falls into a greater light, and the infinite march of a Beauty that leaves no hidden stain, no trace of imperfection, no refuge of weakness or disguised pettiness, no recess of falsehood, he is filled with a wonder that surpasses all sidereal measures and cosmic magic. For, truly, being able to attend to such a microscopic point of matter so futile under the stars, so complicated in its tangle of pain and revolt, its obscure resistance that threatens disaster at every instant, and those thousands of little disasters to ward off every day and at every step, those millions of little sufferings to transmute without blowing up the world requires a power such as the earth has never known before. Disease is breaking out everywhere, in every country, every consciousness, every atom of the great earthly body this is a merciless revolution, a relentless transmutation and yet, here and there, in each human consciousness, each country, each fragment of the great torn body, the catastrophe is avoided at the last minute, the best slowly comes out of the worst, consciousness awakens, and our stumbling steps take us despite themselves to the ultimate gate of deliverance. Such is the formidable Harmony, the imperative Power that the seeker discovers step by step and in his own substance.
1.14 - IMMORTALITY AND SURVIVAL, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
I died a mineral, and became a plant.
I died a plant and rose an animal.
1.14 - The Structure and Dynamics of the Self, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
originates in the earth and transforms the finer minerals and
water into air, which, rising up to the heavens, condenses there
1.15 - The Value of Philosophy, #The Problems of Philosophy, #Bertrand Russell, #Philosophy
Philosophy, like all other studies, aims primarily at knowledge. The knowledge it aims at is the kind of knowledge which gives unity and system to the body of the sciences, and the kind which results from a critical examination of the grounds of our convictions, prejudices, and beliefs. But it cannot be maintained that philosophy has had any very great measure of success in its attempts to provide definite answers to its questions. If you ask a mathematician, a mineralogist, a historian, or any other man of learning, what definite body of truths has been ascertained by his science, his answer will last as long as you are willing to listen. But if you put the same question to a philosopher, he will, if he is candid, have to confess that his study has not achieved positive results such as have been achieved by other sciences. It is true that this is partly accounted for by the fact that, as soon as definite knowledge concerning any subject becomes possible, this subject ceases to be called philosophy, and becomes a separate science. The whole study of the heavens, which now belongs to astronomy, was once included in philosophy; Newton's great work was called 'the mathematical principles of natural philosophy'. Similarly, the study of the human mind, which was a part of philosophy, has now been separated from philosophy and has become the science of psychology. Thus, to a great extent, the uncertainty of philosophy is more apparent than real: those questions which are already capable of definite answers are placed in the sciences, while those only to which, at present, no definite answer can be given, remain to form the residue which is called philosophy.
This is, however, only a part of the truth concerning the uncertainty of philosophy. There are many questions--and among them those that are of the profoundest interest to our spiritual life--which, so far as we can see, must remain insoluble to the human intellect unless its powers become of quite a different order from what they are now. Has the universe any unity of plan or purpose, or is it a fortuitous concourse of atoms? Is consciousness a permanent part of the universe, giving hope of indefinite growth in wisdom, or is it a transitory accident on a small planet on which life must ultimately become impossible? Are good and evil of importance to the universe or only to man? Such questions are asked by philosophy, and variously answered by various philosophers.
1.19 - Life, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
8:It will be said, however, that this is not what we mean by life; we mean a particular result of universal force with which we are familiar and which manifests itself only in the animal and the plant, but not in the metal, the stone, the gas, operates in the animal cell but not in the pure physical atom. We must, therefore, in order to be sure of our ground, examine in what precisely consists this particular result of the play of Force which we call life and how it differs from that other result of the play of Force in inanimate things which, we say, is not life. We see at once that there are here on earth three realms of the play of Force, the animal kingdom of the old classification to which we belong, the vegetable, and lastly the mere material void, as we pretend, of life. How does life in ourselves differ from the life of the plant, and the life of the plant from the not-life, say, of the metal, the mineral kingdom of the old phraseology, or that new chemical kingdom which Science has discovered?
9:Ordinarily, when we speak of life, we have meant animal life, that which moves, breathes, eats, feels, desires, and, if we speak of the life of plants, it has been almost as a metaphor rather than a reality, for plant life was regarded as a purely material process rather than a biological phenomenon. Especially we have associated life with breathing; the breath is life, it was said in every language, and the formula is true if we change our conception of what we mean by the Breath of Life. But it is evident that spontaneous motion or locomotion, breathing, eating are only processes of life and not life itself; they are means for the generation or release of that constantly stimulating energy which is our vitality and for that process of disintegration and renewal by which it supports our substantial existence; but these processes of our vitality can be maintained in other ways than by our respiration and our means of sustenance. It is a proved fact that even human life can remain in the body and can remain in full consciousness when breathing and the beating of the heart and other conditions formerly deemed essential to it have been temporarily suspended. And new evidence of phenomena has been brought forward to establish that the plant, to which we can still deny any conscious reaction, has at least a physical life identical with our own and even organised essentially like our own though different in its apparent organisation. If that is proved true, we still have to make a clean sweep of our old facile and false conceptions and get beyond symptoms and externalities to the root of the matter.
1.26 - Mental Processes - Two Only are Possible, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
"Occult" science is the most difficult of them all. For one thing, its subject-matter includes the whole of philosophy, from ontology and metaphysics down to natural history. More, the most rarefied and recondite of these has a direct bearing upon the conduct of life in its most material details, and the simplest study of such apparently earthbound matters as botany and mineralogy leads to the most abstruse calculations of the imponderables.
With what weapons, then, are we to attack so formidable a fortress?
1.59 - Geomancy, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
On and on he went and found no geological indication of any mineral wealth. Presently he began to get tired and thought it was a little late. He could see in every direction across the Veldt and there was nothing at all. A mile or so in front of him, however, was a row of small kopjes. He said, I may as well go on and get a view from the top.
This he did; and there was still no geological pointer. It struck him, however, that he was getting short of water; and just below on the far side of the kopje were a number of apparently shallow pools.
--
But, when he got to the water, his horse turned sharply aside and refused to drink. At that he dismounted and put his finger in the water to test it. He had struck one of the most important deposits of alkali in South Africa. mineral wealth indeed!
He went home rejoicing and took the necessary steps to protect his find. In the course of the formalities he found it necessary to come to London, which he did, and told me the whole story.
1951-02-24 - Psychic being and entity - dimensions - in the atom - Death - exteriorisation - unconsciousness - Past lives - progress upon earth - choice of birth - Consecration to divine Work - psychic memories - Individualisation - progress, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is what happens. Let us take a divine spark which, through attraction, through affinity and selection, gathers around it a beginning of psychic consciousness (this work is already very perceptible in animalsdont think you are exceptional beings, that you alone have a psychic being and the rest of creation hasnt. It begins in the mineral, it is a little more developed in the plant, and in the animal there is a first glimmer of the psychic presence). Then there comes a moment when this psychic being is sufficiently developed to have an independent consciousness and a personal will. And then after innumerable lives more or less individualised, it becomes conscious of itself, of its movements and of the environment it has chosen for its growth. Arriving at a certain state of perception, it decidesgenerally at the last minute of the life it has just finished upon earth the conditions in which its next life will be passed. Here I must tell you a very important thing: the psychic being can progress and form itself only in the physical life and upon earth. As soon as it leaves a body, it enters into a rest which lasts for a more or less long time according to its own choice and its degree of developmenta rest for assimilation, for a passive progress so to say, a rest for passive growth which will allow this same psychic being to pass on to new experiences and make a more active progress. But after having finished one life (which usually ends only when it has done what it wanted to do), it will have chosen the environment where it will be born, the approximate place where it will be born, the conditions and the kind of life in which it will be born, and a very precise programme of the experiences through which it will have to pass to be able to make the progress it wants to make.
I am going to give you quite a concrete example. Let us take a psychic being that has decided, for some reason or other, to enter the body of a being destined to become king, because there is a whole series of experiences it can have only under those conditions. After having passed through these experiences of a king, it finds that there is a whole domain in which it cannot make a progress due to these very conditions of life where it is. So when it has finished its term upon earth and decides to go away, it decides that in its next life it will take birth in an ordinary environment and in ordinary conditions, neither high nor low, but such that the body which it will take up will be free to do what it likes. For I do not tell you anything new when I say that the life of a king is the life of a slave; a king is obliged to submit to a whole protocol and to all kinds of ceremonies to keep his prestige (it is perhaps very pleasant for vain people, but for a psychic being it is not pleasant, for this deprives it of the possibility of a large number of experiences). So having taken this decision, it carries in itself all the memories which a royal life can give it and it takes rest for the period it considers necessary. (Here, I must say that I am speaking of a psychic being exclusively occupied with itself, not one consecrated to a work, because in that case it is the work which decides the future lives and their conditions; I am speaking of a psychic being at work completing its development.) Hence it decides that at a certain moment it will take a body. Having already had a number of experiences, it knows that in a certain country, a certain part of the consciousness has developed; in another, another part, and so on; so it chooses the place which offers it easy possibilities of development: the country, the conditions of living, the approximate nature of the parents, and also the condition of the body itself, its physical structure and the qualities it needs for its experiences. It takes rest, then at the required moment, wakes up and projects its consciousness upon earth centralising it in the chosen domain and the chosen conditionsor almost so; there is a small margin you know, for in the psychic consciousness one is too far away from the material physical consciousness to be able to see with a clear vision; it is an approximation. It does not make a mistake about the country or the environment and it sees quite clearly the inner vibrations of the people chosen, but there may happen to be a slight indecision. But if, just at this moment, there is a couple upon earth or rather a woman who has a psychic aspiration herself and, for some reason or other, without knowing why or how, would like to have an exceptional child, answering certain exceptional conditions; if at this moment there is this aspiration upon earth, it creates a vibration, a psychic light which the psychic being sees immediately and, without hesitation it rushes towards it. Then, from that moment (which is the moment of conception), it watches over the formation of the child, so that this formation may be as favourable as possible to the plan it has; consequently its influence is there over the child even before it appears in the physical world.
1955-10-12 - The problem of transformation - Evolution, man and superman - Awakening need of a higher good - Sri Aurobindo and earths history - Setting foot on the new path - The true reality of the universe - the new race - ..., #Questions And Answers 1955, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
By analogy, it is quite obvious that the arrival of man upon earth has changed the earth-condition. I cannot say that from a certain point of view this was for the greatest good of all, because there are many who have suffered terribly from it, and here it is obvious that the complications the human being has brought into life have not always been very favourable either for him or for others. But from a certain point of view this has brought about a considerable progress, even in the lower species: man meddled with the life of animals, he meddled with the life of plants, he meddled with the life of metals, of minerals; as I said, it was not always for the greatest joy of those he dealt with, but still it certainly changed their conditions of life considerably. Well, in the same way, it is probable that the supramental being, whatever it might be, will considerably change the life of the earth. In our heart and our thought we hope that all the evils the earth suffers from will be at least ameliorated if not cured, and that the general conditions will be more harmonious, and in any case more tolerable. This may happen, because it was the very nature of the mental consciousness which incarnated in man, who acted for his own satisfaction, with his own development in view and without much consideration for the consequences of his actions. Perhaps the Supermind will act more harmoniously. In any case we hope so. That is how we conceive of it.
But I am asking you, in turn, a question: have you thought of it? Have you thought of what it could be?
1957-10-23 - The central motive of terrestrial existence - Evolution, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
So, in the outer appearances as you see them, at first you find the mineral kingdom with stones, earth, minerals which to us, in our outer consciousness, appear absolutely unconscious. Yet, behind this unconsciousness there is the life of the Spirit, the consciousness of the Spirit, which is completely hidden, which is as if asleepthough that is only an appearance and which works from within in order gradually to transform this Matter that is completely inert in appearance, so that its organisation may lend itself more and more to the manifestation of consciousness. And he says here that at first this veil of inert Matter is so total that, to a superficial glance, it is something that has neither life nor consciousness. When you pick up a stone and look at it with your ordinary eyes and consciousness, you say, It has no life, no consciousness. For one who knows how to see behind appearances, there is, hidden at the centre of this Matterat the centre of each atom of this Matter there is, hidden, the Supreme Divine Reality working from within, gradually, through the millennia, to change this inert Matter into something that is expressive enough to be able to reveal the Spirit within. Then you have the progression of the history of Life: how, from the stone there suddenly appeared a rudimentary life and through successive species a sort of organisation, that is, an organic substance capable of revealing life. But between the mineral and vegetable kingdoms there are transitional elements; one doesnt know whether they belong to the mineral or already to the vegetable kingdomwhen one studies this in detail one sees some strange species which belong neither here nor there, which are not quite this and yet not quite that. Then comes the development of the vegetable kingdom where naturally life appears, for there is growth, transformationa plant sprouts up, develops, growsand with the first phenomenon of life comes also the phenomenon of decomposition and disintegration which is relatively much more rapid than in the stone: a stone, if protected from the impact of other forces, can last apparently indefinitely, whereas the plant already follows a curve of growth, ascent and decline and decomposition but this with an extremely restricted consciousness. Those who have studied the vegetable kingdom in detail are well aware that there is a consciousness there. For instance, plants need sunlight to live the sun represents the active energy which makes them growso, if you put a plant in a place where there is no sunlight, you see it always growing up and up and up, trying, making an effort to reach the sunlight. In a virgin forest, for instance, where man does not interfere, there is this kind of struggle among all the plants which are always growing straight upwards in one way or another in their effort to catch the sunlight. It is very interesting. But even if you put a flower-pot in a fairly small courtyard surrounded by walls, where the sun doesnt come, a plant which normally is as high as this (gesture), becomes as tall as that: it stretches up and makes an effort to find the light. Therefore there is a consciousness, a will to live which is already manifesting. And little by little, with species that are more and more developed, you again reach another transitional passage between what is no longer entirely a plant and still not yet an animal. There are several species like that, which are very interesting. There are those plants which are carnivorous, plants like an open mouth: you throw a fly inside, snap! they swallow it. It is no longer quite a plant, it is not yet an animal. There are many plants of this kind.
Then you come to the animal. The first animals, yes, it is difficult to distinguish them from plants, there is almost no consciousness. But there you see all the animal species, you know them, dont you, right up to the higher animals which, indeed, are very conscious. They have their own completely independent will. They are very conscious and marvellously intelligent, like the elephant, for instance; you know all the stories about elephants and their wonderful intelligence. Therefore, it is already a very perceptible appearance of mind. And through this progressive development, we suddenly pass on to a species which has probably disappearedtraces of which have been foundan intermediate animal like a monkey or of the same line as the monkey something close to it, similar, if not the monkey as we know it but already an animal that walks on two legs. And from there we come to man. There is an entire beginning of the evolution of man; we cant say, can we, that he shows a brilliant intelligence, but there is already an action of the mind, a beginning of independence, of independent reaction to the environment and the forces of Nature. And so, in man there is the whole range, right up to the higher being capable of spiritual life.
1958-05-07 - The secret of Nature, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
No, Nature is not unconscious, but she has an appearance of unconsciousness. It began with the inconscience, but in the depths of the inconscience there was consciousness, and this consciousness is gradually developing.1 For instance, mineral nature, stones, earth, metals, water, air, all this seems to be quite unconscious, although if one observes closely And now science is discovering that this is only an appearance, that all this is only concentrated energy, and of course it is a conscious force which has produced all this. But apparently, when we see a rock, we dont think it is conscious, it does not give the impression of being conscious, it seems to be altogether unconscious.
It is the appearance that is inconscient. It becomes more and more conscious. Even in the mineral kingdom there are phenomena which reveal a hidden consciousness, like certain crystals, for instance. If you see with what precision, what exactitude and harmony they are formed, if you are in the least open, you are bound to feel that behind theres a consciousness at work, that this cannot be the result of unconscious chance.
Have you seen rock-crystals? You have never seen a rock-crystal?
1961 03 11 - 58, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Repeatedly, in different circumstances, several times, I have had the same memory. It was not exactly the same scene or the same images, because it was not something that I saw, it was a life that I was living. For some time, by night or by day, in a certain state of trance I went back to a life that I had lived and had the full consciousness that it was the outflowering of the human form on earth the first human forms capable of embodying the divine Being. It was that. It was the first time I could manifest in an earthly form, in a particular form, in an individual formnot a general life but an individual form that is to say, the first time that the Being above and the being below were joined by the mentalisation of this material substance. I lived this several times, but always in similar surroundings and with a very similar feeling of such joyful simplicity, without complexity, without problems, without all these questions; there was nothing, absolutely nothing of the kind! It was an outflowering of the joy of living, simply that, in universal love and harmonyflowers, minerals, animals: all were in harmony.
It was only long afterwards but this is a personal impressionlong afterwards that things went wrong. Probably because some mental crystallisations were necessary, inevitable for the general evolution, so that the mind might be prepared to move on to something else. This is where Faugh! It is like falling into a hole, into ugliness, into obscurity; everything becomes so dark afterwards, so ugly, so difficult, so painful, it is reallyit really feels like a fall.
1970 03 13, #On Thoughts And Aphorisms, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
387Medical Science has been more a curse to mankind than a blessing. It has broken the force of epidemics and unveiled a marvellous surgery; but, also, it has weakened the natural health of man and multiplied individual diseases; it has implanted fear and dependence in the mind and body; it has taught our health to repose not on natural soundness but a rickety and distasteful crutch compact from the mineral and vegetable kingdoms.
388The doctor aims a drug at a disease; sometimes it hits, sometimes misses. The misses are left out of account, the hits treasured up, reckoned and systematised into a science.
1f.lovecraft - At the Mountains of Madness, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
early work: of our ascent of Mt. Erebus; our successful mineral borings
at several points on Ross Island and the singular speed with which
--
previous explorer had ever thought of securing mineral specimens. The
pre-Cambrian granites and beacon sandstones thus obtained confirmed our
--
mineral salts. Tough as leather, but astonishing flexibility
retained in places. Marks of broken-off parts at ends and around
--
cell-growth science knows about. There had been scarcely any mineral
replacement, and despite an age of perhaps forty million years the
--
condition to take outside as a whole. We did gather some minerals from
a vast tumbled pile, including several of the greenish soapstone
--
themselves in the great mineral pile we found the likeness very close
indeed. The whole general formation, it must be made clear, seemed
1f.lovecraft - The Call of Cthulhu, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
striations resembled nothing familiar to geology or mineralogy. The
characters along the base were equally baffling; and no member present,
--
Jersey; the curator of a local museum and a mineralogist of note.
Examining one day the reserve specimens roughly set on the storage
1f.lovecraft - The Colour out of Space, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
odour and hue. Perhaps some mineral element from the stone had entered
the soil, but it would soon be washed away. And as for the footprints
--
cellar, some mineral and metallic litter here and there, and the rim of
that nefandous well. Save for Ammis dead horse, which they towed away
1f.lovecraft - The Haunter of the Dark, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
artificial object of carved and highly polished mineral matter. It did
not touch the bottom of the box, but was held suspended by means of a
1f.lovecraft - The Hoard of the Wizard-Beast, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
glistening cape to counteract the evil emanations of a mineral that lay
scattered over the rocky ground along his course. Other warnings and
1f.lovecraft - The Hound, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
a rotting oblong box crusted with mineral deposits from the long
undisturbed ground. It was incredibly tough and thick, but so old that
1f.lovecraft - The Man of Stone, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
itself. What gaseous emanation or mineral vapour could have wrought
this change in so relatively short a time was utterly beyond us. Normal
--
with mineral matter so fast that nothing can stop it. It must have been
one of those things great-grandfather got at the Great Sabbat on
1f.lovecraft - The Trap, #Lovecraft - Poems, #unset, #Zen
object called Lokis Glass, made of some polished fusible mineral and
having magical properties which included the divination of the
1.kaa - I Came, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Original Language Persian/Farsi From the un-manifest I came, And pitched my tent, in the Forest of Material existence. I passed through mineral and vegetable kingdoms, Then my mental equipment carried me into the animal kingdom; Having reached there I crossed beyond it; Then in the crystal clear shell of human heart I nursed the drop of self in a Pearl, And in association with good men Wandered round the Prayer House, And having experienced that, crossed beyond it; Then I took the road that leads to Him, And became a slave at His gate; Then the duality disappeared And I became absorbed in Him. [bk1sm.gif] -- from Munajat: The Intimate Invocations, by Sheikh Ansari / Translated by A. G. Farhadi <
1.pbs - Peter Bell The Third, #Shelley - Poems, #Percy Bysshe Shelley, #Fiction
They are mines of poisonous mineral.
Statesmen damn themselves to be
1.rwe - Blight, #Emerson - Poems, #Ralph Waldo Emerson, #Philosophy
Fire, plant, and mineral say, Not in us,
And haughtily return us stare for stare.
1.tm - Night-Flowering Cactus, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Original Language English I know my time, which is obscure, silent and brief For I am present without warning one night only. When sun rises on the brass valleys I become serpent. Though I show my true self only in the dark and to no man (For I appear by day as serpent) I belong neither to night nor day. Sun and city never see my deep white bell Or know my timeless moment of void: There is no reply to my munificence. When I come I lift my sudden Eucharist Out of the earth's unfathomable joy Clean and total I obey the world's body I am intricate and whole, not art but wrought passion Excellent deep pleasure of essential waters Holiness of form and mineral mirth: I am the extreme purity of virginal thirst. I neither show my truth nor conceal it My innocence is described dimly Only by divine gift As a white cavern without explanation. He who sees my purity Dares not speak of it. When I open once for all my impeccable bell No one questions my silence: The all-knowing bird of night flies out of my mouth. Have you seen it? Then though my mirth has quickly ended You live forever in its echo: You will never be the same again. [1499.jpg] -- from Selected Poems of Thomas Merton, by Thomas Merton <
1.whitman - Song Of The Exposition, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
solemn lessons of minerals;
In another, woods, plants, Vegetation shall be illustratedin
1.whitman - To Think Of Time, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
The vegetables and minerals are all perfect, and the imponderable
fluids are perfect;
1.whitman - We Two-How Long We Were Foold, #Whitman - Poems, #unset, #Zen
We are also the coarse smut of beasts, vegetables, minerals;
We are two predatory hawkswe soar above, and look down;
1.ww - The Excursion- IV- Book Third- Despondency, #Wordsworth - Poems, #unset, #Zen
With sparkling mineral, or should crystal cube
Lurk in its cells--and thinks himself enriched,
2.01 - Indeterminates, Cosmic Determinations and the Indeterminable, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
There is more to perplex us; for we see the original indeterminate Energy throwing out general determinates of itself, - we might equally in their relation to the variety of their products call them generic indeterminates, - with their appropriate states of substance and determined forms of that substance: the latter are numerous, sometimes innumerable variations on the substance-energy which is their base: but none of these variations seems to be predetermined by anything in the nature of the general indeterminate. An electric Energy produces positive, negative, neutral forms of itself, forms that are at once waves and particles; a gaseous state of energy-substance produces a considerable number of different gases; a solid state of energysubstance from which results the earth principle develops into different forms of earth and rock of many kinds and numerous minerals and metals; a life principle produces its vegetable kingdom teeming with a countless foison of quite different plants, trees, flowers; a principle of animal life produces an enormous variety of genus, species, individual variations: so it proceeds into human life and mind and its mind-types towards the still unwritten end or perhaps the yet occult sequel of that unfinished evolutionary chapter. Throughout there is the constant rule of a general sameness in the original determinate and, subject to this substantial sameness of basic substance and nature, a profuse variation in the generic and individual determinates; an identical law obtains of sameness or similarity in the genus or species with numerous variations often meticulously minute in the individual. But we do not find anything in any general or generic determinate necessitating the variant determinations that result from it. A necessity of immutable sameness at the base, of free and unaccountable variations on the surface seems to be the law; but who or what necessitates or determines? What is the rationale of the determination, what is its original truth or its significance? What compels or impels this exuberant play of varying possibilities which seem to have no aim or meaning unless it be the beauty or delight of creation? A Mind, a seeking and curious inventive Thought, a hidden determining Will might be there, but there is no trace of it in the first and fundamental appearance of material Nature.
A first possible explanation points to a self-organising dynamic Chance that is at work, - a paradox necessitated by the appearance of inevitable order on one side, of unaccountable freak and fantasy on the other side of the cosmic phenomenon we call Nature. An inconscient and inconsequent Force, we may say, that acts at random and creates this or that by a general chance without any determining principle, - determinations coming in only as the result of a persistent repetition of the same rhythm of action and succeeding because only this repetitive rhythm could succeed in keeping things in being, - this is the energy of Nature. But this implies that somewhere in the origin of things there is a boundless Possibility or a womb of innumerable possibilities that are manifested out of it by the original Energy, - an incalculable Inconscient which we find some embarrassment in calling either an Existence or a Non-Existence; for without some such origin and basis the appearance and the action of the Energy is unintelligible. Yet an opposite aspect of the nature of the cosmic phenomenon as we see it appears to forbid the theory of a random action generating a persistent order. There is too much of an iron insistence on order, on a law basing the possibilities. One would be justified rather in supposing that there is an inherent imperative Truth of things unseen by us, but a Truth capable of manifold manifestation, throwing out a multitude of possibilities and variants of itself which the creative Energy by its action turns into so many realised actualities. This brings us to a second explanation - a mechanical necessity in things, its workings recognisable by us as so many mechanical laws of Nature; - the necessity, we might say, of some such secret inherent Truth of things as we have supposed, governing automatically the processes we observe in action in the universe. But a theory of mechanical Necessity by itself does not elucidate the free play of the endless unaccountable variations which are visible in the evolution: there must be behind the Necessity or in it a law of unity associated with a coexistent but dependent law of multiplicity, both insisting on manifestation; but the unity of what, the multiplicity of what?
2.01 - THE ADVENT OF LIFE, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
fore my chapter heading is inappropriate. The mineral world and
the world of life seem two antithetical creations when viewed by
--
protoplasm and mineral matter. If certain calculations (admittedly
indirect) are accepted as correct, the molecular weights of some
--
of mineral salts (potassium, sodium, magnesium, and various
metallic compounds) these albuminoids constitute a ' proto-
2.02 - Brahman, Purusha, Ishwara - Maya, Prakriti, Shakti, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The same conciliation occurs everywhere, when we look with a straight and accurate look on the truth of the Reality. In our experience of it we become aware of an Infinite essentially free from all limitation by qualities, properties, features; on the other hand, we are aware of an Infinite teeming with innumerable qualities, properties, features. Here again the statement of illimitable freedom is positive, not negative; it does not negate what we see, but on the contrary provides the indispensable condition for it, it makes possible a free and infinite self-expression in quality and feature. A quality is the character of a power of conscious being; or we may say that the consciousness of being expressing what is in it makes the power it brings out recognisable by a native stamp on it which we call quality or character. Courage as a quality is such a power of being, it is a certain character of my consciousness expressing a formulated force of my being, bringing out or creating a definite kind of force of my nature in action. So too the power of a drug to cure is its property, a special force of being native to the herb or mineral from which it is produced, and this speciality is determined by the Real-Idea concealed in the involved consciousness which dwells in the plant or mineral; the idea brings out in it what was there at the root of its manifestation and has now come out thus empowered as the force of its being. All qualities, properties, features are such powers of conscious being thus put forth from itself by the Absolute; It has everything within It, It has the free power to put all forth;6 yet we cannot define the Absolute as a quality of courage or a power of healing, we cannot even say that these are a characteristic feature of the Absolute, nor can we make up a sum of qualities and say "that is the Absolute". But neither can we speak of the Absolute as a pure blank incapable of manifesting these things; on the contrary, all capacity is there, the powers of all qualities and characters are there inherent within it. The mind is in a difficulty because it has to say, "The Absolute or Infinite is none of these things, these things are not the Absolute or Infinite" and at the same time it has to say, "The Absolute is all these things, they are not something else than That, for That is the sole existence and the all-existence." Here it is evident that it is an undue finiteness of thought conception and verbal expression which creates the difficulty, but there is in reality none; for it would be evidently absurd to say that the Absolute is courage or curing-power, or to say that courage and curing-power are the Absolute, but it would be equally absurd to deny the capacity of the Absolute to put forth courage or curingpower as self-expressions in its manifestation. When the logic of the finite fails us, we have to see with a direct and unbound vision what is behind in the logic of the Infinite. We can then realise that the Infinite is infinite in quality, feature, power, but that no sum of qualities, features, powers can describe the Infinite.
6 The word for creation in Sanskrit means a loosing or putting forth of what is in the being.
2.02 - THE EXPANSION OF LIFE, #The Phenomenon of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
a radiferous Precambrian mineral, are prepared to allow only
fifteen hundred million years from the earliest sediment of
2.07 - I Also Try to Tell My Tale, #The Castle of Crossed Destinies, #Italo Calvino, #Fiction
In the landscape the objects of reading and writing are placed among rocks, grass, lizards, having become products and instruments of the mineral-vegetable-animal continuum. Among the hermit's bric-a-brac there is also a skull: the written word always takes into consideration the erasure of the person who has written or the one who will read. Inarticulate nature comprehends in her discourse the discourse of human beings.
But remember we are not in the desert, in the jungle, on Crusoe's island: the city is only a step away. The paintings of hermits, almost always, have a city in the background. An engraving by Drer is completely occupied by the city, a low pyramid carved with squared towers and peaked roofs; the saint, flattened against a hillock in the foreground, has his back to the city and does not take his eyes off his book, beneath his monk's hood. In Rembrandt's drypoint the high city dominates the lion, who turns his muzzle around, and the saint below, reading blissfully in the shadow of a walnut tree, under a broad-brimmed hat. At evening the hermits see the lights come on at the windows; the wind bears, in gusts, the music of festivities. In a quarter of an hour, if they chose, they could be back among other people. The hermit's strength is measured not by how far away he has gone to live, but by the scant distance he requires to detach himself from the city, without ever losing sight of it.
2.1.03 - Man and Superman, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Plant-life is a most significant progress upon the mineral, but the difference is as nothing compared with the gulf that divides the dumb vitality of the plant from the conscious experience of the animal. The hiatus between the animal and the human is so great in consciousness, however physically small, that the scientists' alleged cousinship of monkey and man looks psychologically almost incredible. And yet the difference between vital animal and mental man is as nothing to that which will be between man's mind and the superman's vaster consciousness and richer powers. That past step will be to this new one as the snail's slow march in the grass to a Titan's sudden thousand league stride from continent to continent.
Evolution on the terrestrial plane, even in the dullest brute matter is only in outward appearance a progression of physical function and form; in its essential fact, in its inner meaning, in its significant power, it is a progression of consciousness, a spiritual or psychological change.
--
In the sub-vegetal world all movements, all stimulus, all reaction are of a material and if dynamic, of a mechanically dynamic character. Even the life movements that exist there, as in the mineral, are of the most rigidly automatic, unindividualised and mechanical and external nature, birth, formation, fatigue, sleep, death. Mental or psychic powers and significances there are, as an occult knowledge discovers, but of these the form seems not aware; it is something behind the life of the mineral, a consciousness supporting rather than inhabiting it, using but not used by it, that is their possessor.
In the plant world for the first time a true vital consciousness appears in earth Nature.
--
Man is a struggling transitional term, an intermediate being who has gathered up into himself the consciousness of the mineral and the vegetable, of the insect and the animal, and is fashioning and refining in the confused twilight and chaos of a half knowledge founded on Ignorance the materials of the god that is to be born.
The instrument of man is mind and thinking and willing mind-force - just as the instrument of the animal is life instinct and feeling and remembering life force and the instrument of the plant and tree existence is the vital push and the dynamism of material energy turning into force of life. As these lower states developed up to a point at which Mind-intelligence could descend into the organised living body and take up the earth-past to mentalise and transform it, so Mind in man has to develop up to a point at which a consciousness greater than Mind can descend into the mind and living body and take up the human material to supramentalise and transform it into godhead. This is man's rise to the Infinite.
2.10 - Knowledge by Identity and Separative Knowledge, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Presence in it, the one Conscious in unconscious things, that determines the operation of its indwelling energies. If, as has been affirmed, a material object receives and retains the impression of the contacts of things around it and energies emanate from it, so that an occult knowledge can become aware of its past, can make us conscious of these emanating influences, the intrinsic unorganised Awareness pervading the form but not yet enlightening it must be the cause of this receptivity and these capacities. What we see from outside is that material objects like plants and minerals have their powers, properties and inherent influences, but as there is no faculty or means of communication, it is only by being brought into contact with person or object or by a conscious utilisation by living beings that their influences can become active, - such a utilisation is the practical side of more than one human science. But still these powers and influences are attributes of Being, not of mere indeterminate substance, they are forces of the Spirit emerging by Energy from its self-absorbed Inconscience. This first crude mechanical action of an inherent absorbed conscious energy opens in the primary forms of life into submental life-vibrations that imply an involved sensation; there is a seeking for growth, light, air, life-room, a blind feeling out, which is still internal and confined within the immobile being, unable to formulate its instincts, to communicate, to externalise itself. An immobility not organised to establish living relations, it endures and absorbs contacts, involuntarily inflicts but cannot voluntarily impose them; the inconscience is still dominant, still works out everything by the secret involved knowledge by identity, it has not yet developed the surface contactual means of a conscious knowledge. This further development begins with overtly conscious life; what we see in it is the imprisoned consciousness struggling out to the surface: it is under the compulsion of this struggle that the separated living being strives, however blindly at first and within narrow limits, to enter into conscious relations with the rest of the world-being outside it. It is by the growing amount of contacts that it can receive and respond to and by the growing amount of contacts that it can put out from itself or impose in
572
2.15 - On the Gods and Asuras, #Evening Talks With Sri Aurobindo, #unset, #Zen
Disciple: Will it be possible to live only on a diet of mineral and synthesised food developed by science?
Disciple: No, it will not. Science always goes forward and finds that it has to go further. When they found protein they thought that all proteins had equal value in food; now they find that each protein has a different food-value. So it will always be.
2.23 - Man and the Evolution, #The Life Divine, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
If it be asked, how then did all these various gradations and types of being come into existence, it can be answered that, fundamentally, they were manifested in Matter by the Consciousness-Force in it, by the power of the Real-Idea building its own significant forms and types for the indwelling Spirit's cosmic existence: the practical or physical method might vary considerably in different grades or stages, although a basic similarity of line may be visible; the creative Power might use not one but many processes or set many forces to act together. In Matter the process is a creation of infinitesimals charged with an immense energy, their association by design and number, the manifestation of larger infinitesimals on that primary basis, the grouping and association of these together to found the appearance of sensible objects, earth, water, minerals, metals, the whole material kingdom. In life also the Consciousness-Force begins with infinitesimal forms of vegetable life and infinitesimal animalcules; it creates an original plasm and multiplies it, creates the living cell as a unit, creates other kinds of minute biological apparatus like the seed or the gene, uses always the same method of grouping and association so as to build by a various operation various living organisms. A constant creation of types is visible, but that is no indubitable proof of evolution. The types are sometimes distant from each other, sometimes closely similar, sometimes identical in basis but different in detail; all are patterns, and such a variation in patterns with an identical rudimentary basis for all is the sign of a conscious Force playing with its own Idea and developing by it all kinds of possibilities of creation. Animal species in coming into birth may begin with a like rudimentary embryonic or fundamental pattern for all, it may follow out up to a stage certain similarities of development on some or all of its lines; there may too be species that are twy-natured, amphibious, intermediate between one type and another: but all this need not mean that the types developed one from another in an evolutionary series. Other forces than hereditary variation have been at work in bringing about the appearance of new characteristics; there are physical forces such as food, light-rays and others that we are only beginning to know, there are surely others which we do not yet know; there are at work invisible life forces and obscure psychological forces.
For these subtler powers have to be admitted even in the physical evolutionary theory to account for natural selection; if the occult or subconscious energy in some types answers to the need of the environment, in others remains unresponsive and unable to survive, this is clearly the sign of a varying life-energy and psychology, of a consciousness and a force other than the physical at work making for variation in Nature. The problem of the method of operation is still too full of obscure and unknown factors for any at present possible structure of theory to be definitive.
3.01 - The Mercurial Fountain, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
runs (filling in the abbreviations): Unus est Mercurius mineralis,
Mercurius vegetabilis, Mercurius animalis. (Vegetabilis should be
3.02 - King and Queen, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
metal or mineral, but only as spirit. In this form also he is triple-natured
masculine, feminine, and divine. His coincidence with the Holy Ghost
3.02 - SOL, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[111] The active sun-substance also has favourable effects. As the so-called balsam it drips from the sun and produces lemons, oranges, wine, and, in the mineral kingdom, gold.15 In man the balsam forms the radical moisture, from the sphere of the supracelestial waters; it is the shining or lucent body which from mans birth enkindles the inner warmth, and from which come all the motions of the will and the principle of all appetition. It is a vital spirit, and it has its seat in the brain and its governance in the heart.16
[112] In the Liber Platonis Quartorum, a Sabaean treatise, the spiritus animalis or solar sulphur is still a
3.02 - The Psychology of Rebirth, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
fish's eyes." Cf. Joannes Isaacus Hollandus, Opera mineralia (1600), p. 370. Also
Lagneus, "Harmonica chemica." Theatrum chemicum, IV (1613), p. 870. The eyes
3.03 - The Spirit Land, #Theosophy, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
distinguish the different kinds of Archetypes. In the "Spirit-land" also one has to differentiate numerous grades or regions in order to steer one's way among them. Here also, as in the soul world, the different regions are not to be thought of as laid one above the other like strata, but mutually interpenetrating and suffusing each other. The first region contains the "Archetypes" of the physical world in so far as it is not endowed with life. The Archetypes of the minerals are to be found here-also those of the plants; but the latter only in so far as they are purely physical, that is, in so far as one does not take into account the life in them. In the same way one finds here the physical forms of the animals and of human beings. This does not exhaust all that is to be found in this region, but merely illustrates it by the readiest examples. This region forms the basic structure of the "Spirit-land." It can be likened to the solid land of our physical earth. It forms the continental masses of the "Spirit-land." Its relationship with the physical, corporal world can only be described by means of an illustration. One gains some idea of it in the following way. One has to
p. 136
3.05 - SAL, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[240] In philosophical alchemy, salt is a cosmic principle. According to its position in the quaternity, it is correlated with the feminine, lunar side and with the upper, light half. It is therefore not surprising that Sal is one of the many designations for the arcane substance. This connotation seems to have developed in the early Middle Ages under Arabic influence. The oldest traces of it can be found in the Turba, where salt-water and sea-water are synonyms for the aqua permanens,396 and in Senior, who says that Mercurius is made from salt.397 His treatise is one of the earliest authorities in Latin alchemy. Here Sal Alkali also plays the role of the arcane substance, and Senior mentions that the dealbatio was called salsatura (marination).398 In the almost equally old Allegoriae sapientum the lapis is described as salsus (salty).399 Arnaldus de Villanova (1235?1313) says: Whoever possesses the salt that can be melted, and the oil that cannot be burned, may praise God.400 It is clear from this that salt is an arcane substance. The Rosarium, which leans very heavily on the old Latin sources, remarks that the whole secret lies in the prepared common salt,401 and that the root of the art is the soap of the sages (sapo sapientum), which is the mineral of all salts and is called the bitter salt (sal amarum).402 Whoever knows the salt knows the secret of the old sages.403 Salts and alums are the helpers of the stone.404 Isaac Hollandus calls salt the medium between the terra sulphurea and the water. God poured a certain salt into them in order to unite them, and the sages named this salt the salt of the wise.405
[241] Among later writers, salt is even more clearly the arcane substance. For Mylius it is synonymous with the tincture;406 it is the earth-dragon who eats his own tail, and the ash, the diadem of thy heart.407 The salt of the metals is the lapis.408 Basilius Valentinus speaks of a sal spirituale.409 It is the seat of the virtue which makes the art possible,410 the most noble treasury,411 the good and noble salt, which though it has not the form of salt from the beginning, is nevertheless called salt; it becomes impure and pure of itself, it dissolves and coagulates itself, or, as the sages say, locks and unlocks itself;412 it is the quintessence, above all things and in all creatures.413 The whole magistery lies in the salt and its solution.414 The permanent radical moisture consists of salt.415 It is synonymous with the incombustible oil,416 and is altogether a mystery to be concealed.417
--
[245] Inseparable from salt and sea is the quality of amaritudo, bitterness. The etymology of Isidore of Seville was accepted all through the Middle Ages: Mare ab amaro.431 Among the alchemists the bitterness became a kind of technical term. Thus, in the treatise Rosinus ad Euthiciam,432 there is the following dialogue between Zosimos and Theosebeia: This is the stone that hath in it glory and colour. And she: Whence cometh its colour? He replied: From its exceeding strong bitterness. And she: Whence cometh its bitterness and intensity? He answered: From the impurity of its metal. The treatise Rosinus ad Sarratantam episcopum433 says: Take the stone that is black, white, red, and yellow, and is a wonderful bird that flies without wings in the blackness of the night and the brightness of the day: in the bitterness that is in its throat the colouring will be found. Each thing in its first matter is corrupt and bitter, says Ripley. The bitterness is a tincturing poison.434 And Mylius: Our stone is endowed with the strongest spirit, bitter and brazen (aeneus);435 and the Rosarium mentions that salt is bitter because it comes from the mineral of the sea.436 The Liber Alze437 says: O nature of this wondrous thing, which transforms the body into spirit! . . . When it is found alone it conquers all things, and is an excellent, harsh, and bitter acid, which transmutes gold into pure spirit.438
[246] These quotations clearly allude to the sharp taste of salt and sea-water. The reason why the taste is described as bitter and not simply as salt may lie first of all in the inexactness of the language, since amarus also means sharp, biting, harsh, and is used metaphorically for acrimonious speech or a wounding joke. Besides this, the language of the Vulgate had an important influence as it was one of the main sources for medieval Latin. The moral use which the Vulgate consistently makes of amarus and amaritudo gives them, in alchemy as well, a nuance that cannot be passed over. This comes out clearly in Ripleys remark that each thing in its first matter is corrupt and bitter. The juxtaposition of these two attri butes indicates the inner connection between them: corruption and bitterness are on the same footing, they denote the state of imperfect bodies, the initial state of the prima materia. Among the best known synonyms for the latter are the chaos and the sea, in the classical, mythological sense denoting the beginning of the world, the sea in particular being conceived as the
, matrix of all creatures.439 The prima materia is often called aqua pontica. The salt that comes from the mineral of the sea is by its very nature bitter, but the bitterness is due also to the impurity of the imperfect body. This apparent contradiction is explained by the report of Plutarch that the Egyptians regarded the sea as something impure and untrustworthy (
), and as the domain of Typhon (Set); they called salt the spume of Typhon.440 In his Philosophia reformata, Mylius mentions sea-spume together with the purged or purified sea, rock-salt, the bird, and Luna as equivalent synonyms for the lapis occultus.441 Here the impurity of the sea is indirectly indicated by the epithets purged or purified. The sea-spume is on a par with the salt andof particular interestwith the bird, naturally the bird of Hermes, and this throws a sudden light on the above passage from Rosinus, about the bird with bitterness in its throat. The bird is a parallel of salt because salt is a spirit,442 a volatile substance, which the alchemists were wont to conceive as a bird.
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Someone hath said,542 And when I rise naked to heaven, then shall I come clothed upon the earth, and shall perfect all minerals.543 And if we are baptized in the fountain of gold and silver, and the spirit of our body [i.e., the arcane substance] ascends into heaven with the father and the son, and descends again, then shall our souls revive, and my animal body will remain white, that is, [the body] of the moon.544
[292] Here the union of opposites consists in an ascent to heaven and a descent to earth in the bath of the tincture. The earthly effect is first a perfection of minerals, then a resuscitation of souls and a transfiguration of the animal body, which before was dark. A parallel passage in the Consilium runs:
His soul rises up from it545 and is exalted to the heavens, that is, to the spirit, and becomes the rising sun (that is, red), in the waxing moon, and of solar nature.546 And then the lantern with two lights,547 which is the water of life, will return to its origin, that is, to earth. And it becomes of low estate, is humbled and decays, and is joined to its beloved,548 the terrestrial sulphur.549
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mentioned earlier. Just as the numerous synonyms and attri butes of the lapis stress now one and now another of its aspects, so do the symbols of the self. Apart from its preservative quality salt has mainly the metaphorical meaning of sapientia. With regard to this aspect the Tractatus aureus states: It is said in the mystic language of our sages, He who works without salt will never raise dead bodies. . . . He who works without salt draws a bow without a string. For you must know that these sayings refer to a very different kind of salt from the common mineral. . . . Sometimes they call the medicine itself Salt. 652 These words are ambiguous: here salt means wit as well as wisdom. As to the importance of salt in the opus, Johannes Grasseus says of the arcane substance: And this is the Lead of the Philosophers, which they also call the lead of the air. In it is found the shining white dove, named the salt of the metals, wherein is the whole magistery of the work. This [dove] is the pure, chaste, wise, and rich Queen of Sheba.653 Here salt, arcane substance (the paradoxical lead of the air), the white dove (spiritus sapientiae), wisdom, and femininity appear in one figure. The saying from the Gloria mundi is quite clear: No man can understand this Art who does not know the salt and its preparation.654 For the Aquarium sapientum the sal sapientiae comes from the aqua benedicta or aqua pontica, which, itself an extract, is named heart, soul, and spirit. At first the aqua is contained in the prima materia and is of a blood-red colour; but after its preparation it becomes of a bright, clear, transparent white, and is called by the sages the Salt of Wisdom.655 Khunrath boldly summarizes these statements about the salt when he says: Our water cannot be made without the salt of wisdom, for it is the salt of wisdom itself, say the philosophers; a fire, and a salt fire, the true Living Universal Menstruum. Without salt the work has no success.656 Elsewhere he remarks: Not without good reason has salt been adorned by the wise with the name of Wisdom. Salt is the lapis, a mystery to be hidden.657 Vigenerus says that the Redeemer chose his disciples that they might be the salt of men and proclaim to them the pure and incorruptible doctrine of the gospel. He reports the Cabalists as saying that the computatio658 of the Hebrew word for salt (melach) gives the number 78. This number could be divided by any divisor and still give a word that referred to the divine Name. We will not pursue the inferences he draws from this but will only note that for all those reasons salt was used for the service of God in all offerings and sacrifices.659 Glauber calls Christ the sal sapientiae and says that his favourite disciple John was salted with the salt of wisdom.660
[330] Apart from its lunar wetness and its terrestrial nature, the most outstanding properties of salt are bitterness and wisdom. As in the double quaternio of the elements and qualities, earth and water have coldness in common, so bitterness and wisdom would form a pair of opposites with a third thing between. (See diagram on facing page.) The factor common to both, however incommensurable the two ideas may seem, is, psychologically, the function of feeling. Tears, sorrow, and disappointment are bitter, but wisdom is the comforter in all psychic suffering. Indeed, bitterness and wisdom form a pair of alternatives: where there is bitterness wisdom is lacking, and where wisdom is there can be no bitterness. Salt, as the carrier of this fateful alternative, is co-ordinated with the nature of woman. The masculine, solar nature in the right half of the quaternio knows neither coldness, nor a shadow, nor heaviness, melancholy, etc., because, so long as all goes well, it identifies as closely as possible with consciousness, and that as a rule is the idea which one has of oneself. In this idea the shadow is usually missing: first because nobody likes to admit to any inferiority, and second because logic forbids something white to be called black. A good man has good qualities, and only the bad man has bad qualities. For reasons of prestige we pass over the shadow in complete silence. A famous example of masculine prejudice is Nietzsches Superman, who scorns compassion and fights against the Ugliest Man the ordinary man that everyone is. The shadow must not be seen, it must be denied, repressed, or twisted into something quite extraordinary. The sun is always shining and everything smiles back. There is no room for any prestige-diminishing weakness, so the sol niger is never seen. Only in solitary hours is its presence feared.
3.05 - The Physical World and its Connection with the Soul and Spirit-Lands, #Theosophy, #Alice Bailey, #Occultism
points; in the four lower regions they shape themselves into spiritual formations. The human spirit perceives a shadowy reflection of these spiritual formations when, by thinking, he tries to gain understanding of the things of the senses. How these formations have condensed until they form the sensible world is a question for him who strives toward a spiritual understanding of the world around him. For human sense perception this surrounding world is divided into four distinctly separated stages, the mineral, the plant, the animal, and the human.
The mineral kingdom is perceived by the senses and comprehended by thought. Thus when one forms a thought about a mineral body one has to do with two things, the sense object and the thought. In accordance with this, one is brought to the conception that this sense object is a condensed thought being. Now one mineral being acts on another in an external way. It impinges on it and moves it; it warms it, lights it up, dissolves it, etc. This external kind of action can be expressed through thoughts. A man forms thoughts as to the way in which mineral things act on each
p. 166
other externally and in accordance with their laws. By this means his separate thoughts expand to a thought picture of the whole mineral world. And this thought picture is a gleam, a reflection of the Archetype of the whole mineral world of the senses. It is to be found as a complete whole in the spirit world.
In the plant kingdom there is added to the external action of one thing on another, the phenomena of growth and propagation. The plant grows and brings forth from itself beings like itself. Life is here added to what man meets with in the mineral kingdom. A simple recollection of this fact leads to an expression which is enlightening in this connection. The plant has in itself the power to give itself its living shape, and to reproduce this shape in a being of its own kind. And in between the shapeless kinds of mineral matter, as we meet them in gases, liquids, etc., and the living shape of the plant world, stand the forms of the crystal. In the crystal we have the transition from the shapeless mineral world to the plant kingdom, which has the capacity for forming living shapes. In this externally
p. 167
sensible formative process in both kingdoms, the mineral and the plant, one sees condensed to its sensible expression the purely spiritual process which takes place when the spiritual Germs of the higher regions of the "Spirit-land" form themselves into the spirit shapes of the lower regions. The process of crystallization corresponds to its Archetype in the spirit world, the transition from the formless spirit Germ to the shaped formation. If this transition condenses so that the senses can perceive it, it exhibits itself in the world of the senses as the process of crystallization.
Now there is in the plant being a shaped spirit Germ also. But here the living, shaping capacity is still retained in the shaped being. In the crystal the spirit Germ has lost its constructing power during the process of shaping. It has exhausted its energies in the shape produced. The plant has shape and, in addition to that, it has the capacity of producing a shape. The characteristic of the spirit Germs in the higher regions of the "Spirit-land" has been preserved in the plant life. The plant is therefore shape, as is the crystal, and, added to that, shaping or formative force.
--
way the Being that constructs the sentient soul-body has its origin in the highest regions of the "Spirit-land," forms itself in the third region of the same into the Archetype of the soul world and works as such in the sensible world. But the intellectual soul is formed in that the Archetype of thinking man shapes itself in the fourth region of the "Spirit-land" into thought, and as such acts directly as thinking human being in the world of the senses. Thus man stands within the world of the senses; thus works the spirit on his physical-body, on his ether-body, and on his sentient soul-body. Thus comes this spirit into manifestation in the intellectual soul. Archetypes in the form of Beings who in a certain sense are external to man work upon the three lower components of his being; in his intellectual soul he himself becomes a (conscious) worker on himself. The Beings working on his physical-body are the same as those who form the mineral nature. On his ether-body work Beings living in the plant kingdom, on his sentient soul-body work Beings who live in the animal kingdom imperceptible by the
p. 175
31.06 - Jagadish Chandra Bose, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 07, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The speciality and distinctiveness of the truth and knowledge of the object that Jagadish Chandra has found without the accepted means and processes of knowledge arises from a speciality of that very direct insight and of that divine vision, the fundamental truth of which is oneness. All matter is one - even to a scientist this truth is not new - but then the unity and oneness that has attained such intensity and perfection in these days was not a familiar fact of the olden times. Jagadish Chandra has traced a new line of unity in the unity of matter; he has raised the unity of matter to a higher level and invested it with a new quality. Over and above the unity of matter in the world there is a unity of life; behind the rhythms of matter is the rhythm of life. Even mineral objects feel fatigued, they faint from the application of poison, they look dying, then die. Plants also are no mere sum of material elements; they too have pulsation and nervous response, vibration of the heart and feeling of joy and sorrow, they have an involved consciousness. Jagadish Chandra has in this way brought matter through the corridor of life right almost to the door-step of consciousness. Our ancient seer vision has thus been made sensible through in his genius.
All that we see is one, not many. That one is not inanimate matter, it is instinct with life, it is living, nay, not only living but conscious. The truth that the Rishi in his divine vision has seen, and experienced in his soul, how it manifests itself, how it proves itself, how the rhythm of the subtle has played into the gross, how the Self of the Spirit has not concealed itself outside or beyond its creation but has permeated the whole of creation, how its light has made the creation luminous - tasya bhasa sarvamidam bibhati - "his light illumines all this" - something of this knowledge Jagadish Chandra has placed before the physical eye of our ordinary belief.
3.20 - Of the Eucharist, #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
has shaken that which divided them from the mineral.
But even though the advanced chemist might admit the possibi- [187]
3-5 Full Circle, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
Today, Aurelio Peccei, president of the scientific Club of Rome, is calling for "A Copernican change of attitude".19 For the modern industrial world, this change of attitude is presented in the book you hold before you now: it is an alternative to our malfunctioning congeries of specialized one-field scientific and humanistic theories. We present this alternative to you on the basis of observations and measurements, such as Arthur Jensen's, and on the grounds of logical simplicity. And, far beyond these grounds, we present it because this Copernican change of attitude is necessary to the survival of the Empire of Man and of its otherwise doomed participants--human, animal, vegetable, and mineral.
The universal pattern displayed in Unified Science has existed right along. Why, then, has it not been obvious ever since the modern sciences emerged, four centuries ago? For the same reason that it was not obvious, until Copernicus, that the Earth revolves around its axis and the sun.
4.04 - THE REGENERATION OF THE KING, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
, grown-on) was to the divine soul of man. This accrescent soul was a second soul that grew through the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms up to man, pervading the whole of nature, and to it the natural forms were attached like appendages (
). This strange idea of Isidores is so much in keeping with the phenomenology of the collective unconscious that one is justified in calling it a projection of this empirically demonstrable fact in the form of a metaphysical hypostasis.
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[404] In alchemy the lion, the royal beast, is a synonym for Mercurius,143 or, to be more accurate, for a stage in his transformation. He is the warm-blooded form of the devouring, predatory monster who first appears as the dragon. Usually the lion-form succeeds the dragons death and eventual dismemberment. This in turn is followed by the eagle. The transformations described in Rosencreutzs Chymical Wedding give one a good idea of the transformations and symbols of Mercurius. Like him, the lion appears in dual form as lion and lioness,144 or he is said to be Mercurius duplex.145 The two lions are sometimes identified with the red and white sulphur.146 The illustrations show a furious battle between the wingless lion (red sulphur) and the winged lioness (white sulphur). The two lions are prefigurations of the royal pair, hence they wear crowns. Evidently at this stage there is still a good deal of bickering between them, and this is precisely what the fiery lion is intended to express the passionate emotionality that precedes the recognition of unconscious contents.147 The quarrelling couple also represent the uroboros.148 The lion thus signifies the arcane substance, described as terra,149 the body or unclean body.150 Further synonyms are the desert place,151 poison, because it [this earth] is deadly, tree, because it bears fruit, or hidden matter [hyle], because it is the foundation of all nature and the substance [subiectum] of all elements.152 In apparent contradiction to this Maier cites from Ripleys Tractatus duodecim portarum the remark that the green lion is a means of conjoining the tinctures between sun and moon.153 It is, however, psychologically correct to say that emotion unites as much as it divides. Basilius Valentinus takes the lion as the arcane substance, calling it the trinity composed of Mercurius, Sal, and Sulphur, and the equivalent of draco, aquila, rex, spiritus, and corpus.154 The Gloria Mundi calls the green lion the mineral stone that consumes a great quantity of its own spirit,155 meaning self-impregnation by ones own soul (imbibitio, cibatio, nutritio, penetratio, etc.).156
[405] Besides the green lion there was also, in the later Middle Ages, a red lion.157 Both were Mercurius.158 The fact that Artefius mentions a magic use of the lion (and of the snake) throws considerable light on our symbol: he is good for battle,159 and here we may recall the fighting lions and the fact that the king in the Allegoria Merlini began drinking the water just when he was venturing forth to war. We shall probably not be wrong if we assume that the king of beasts, known even in Hellenistic times as a transformation stage of Helios,160 represents the old king, the Antiquus dierum of the Cantilena, at a certain stage of renewal, and that perhaps in this way he acquired the singular title of Leo antiquus.161 At the same time he represents the king in his theriomorphic form, that is, as he appears in his unconscious state. The animal form emphasizes that the king is overpowered or overlaid by his animal side and consequently expresses himself only in animal reactions, which are nothing but emotions. Emotionality in the sense of uncontrollable affects is essentially bestial, for which reason people in this state can be approached only with the circumspection proper to the jungle,162 or else with the methods of the animal-trainer.
4.09 - REGINA, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
You have the virgin earth, give her a husb and who is fitting for her! She is the Queen of Sheba, hence there is need of a king crowned with a diademwhere shall we find him? We see how the heavenly sun gives of his splendour to all other bodies, and the earthly or mineral sun will do likewise, when he is set in his own heaven, which is named the Queen of Sheba, who came from the ends of the earth to behold the glory of Solomon. So, too, our Mercury has left his own lands and clothed himself with the fairest garment of white, and has given himself to Solomon, and not to any other who is a stranger [extraneo] and impure.419
[534] Here Mercurius in feminine form is the queen, and she is the heaven wherein the sun shines. She is thus thought of as a medium surrounding the suna man encompassed by a woman, as was said of Christ420or as Shiva in the embrace of Shakti. This medium has the nature of Mercurius, that paradoxical being, whose one definable meaning is the unconscious.421 The queen appears in the texts as the maternal vessel of Sol and as the aureole of the king, i.e., as a crown.422 In the Tractatus aureus de Lapide423 the queen, at her apotheosis,424 holds a discourse in which she says:
4.2 - Karma, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
386. Medical Science has been more a curse to mankind than a blessing. It has broken the force of epidemics and unveiled a marvellous surgery; but, also, it has weakened the natural health of man and multiplied individual diseases; it has implanted fear and dependence in the mind and body; it has taught our health to repose not on natural soundness but a rickety & distasteful crutch compact from the mineral and vegetable kingdoms.
387. The doctor aims a drug at a disease; sometimes it hits, sometimes misses. The misses are left out of account, the hits treasured up, reckoned and systematised into a science.
5.03 - ADAM AS THE FIRST ADEPT, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
[570] Not always in alchemy is Adam created out of the four elements. The Introitus apertus, for instance, says that the soul of the gold is united with Mercurius in lead, that they may bring forth Adam and his wife Eve.86 Here Adam and Eve take the place of King and Queen. But in general Adam, being composed of the four elements, either is the prima materia and the arcane substance itself,87 or he brought it with him from paradise, at the beginning of the world, as the first adept. Maier mentions that Adam brought antimony (then regarded as an arcane substance)88 from paradise.89 The long line of Philosophers begins with him. The Aquarium sapientum asserts that the secret of the stone was revealed to Adam from above and was subsequently sought after with singular longing by all the Holy Patriarchs.90 The Gloria mundi says: The Lord endowed Adam with great wisdom, and such marvellous insight that he immediately, without the help of any teachersimply by virtue of his original righteousnesshad a perfect knowledge of the seven liberal arts, and of all animals, plants, stones, metals, and minerals. Nay, what is more, he had a perfect understanding of the Holy Trinity, and of the coming of Christ in the flesh.91 This curious opinion is traditional and comes mainly from Rabbinic sources.92 Aquinas, too, thought that Adam, because of his perfection, must have had a knowledge of all natural things.93 In Arabian tradition Shth (Seth) learnt medicine from him.94 Adam also built the Kaba, for which purpose the angel Gabriel gave him the ground-plan and a precious stone. Later the stone turned black because of the sins of men.95
[571] The Jewish sources are even more explicit. Adam understood all the arts,96 he invented writing, and from the angels he learnt husbandry and all the professions including the art of the smith.97 A treatise from the eleventh century lists thirty kinds of fruit which he brought with him from paradise.98 Maimonides states that Adam wrote a book on trees and plants.99 Rabbi Eliezer credits Adam with the invention of the leap-year.100 According to him, the tables on which God later inscribed the law came from Adam.101 From Eliezer, probably, derives the statement of Bernardus Trevisanus that Hermes Trismegistus found seven stone tables in the vale of Hebron, left over from antediluvian times. On them was a description of the seven liberal arts. Adam had put these tables there after his expulsion from paradise.102 According to Dorn, Adam was the first practitioner and inventor of the arts. He had a knowledge of all things before and after the Fall, and he also prophesied the renewal and chastening of the world by the flood.103 His descendants set up two stone tables on which they recorded all the natural arts in hieroglyphic script. Noah found one of these tables at the foot of Mount Ararat, bearing a record of astronomy.104
5.4.01 - Notes on Root-Sounds, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
- plant, kind of grass, mineral substance
codome flower, kind of grass
6.06 - SELF-KNOWLEDGE, #Mysterium Coniunctionis, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
Quicksilver is cold and moist, and God created all minerals with it, and it itself is aerial, and volatile in the fire. But since it withstands the fire for some time, it will do great and wonderful works, and it alone is a living spirit, and in all the world there is nothing like it that can do such things as it can . . . It is the perennial water, the water of life, the virgins milk, the fount, the alumen,132 and [whoever] drinks of it shall not perish. When it is alive it does certain works, and when it is dead it does other and the greatest works. It is the serpent that rejoices in itself, impregnates itself, and gives birth in a single day, and slays all metals with its venom. It flees from the fire, but the sages by their art have caused it to withstand the fire, by nourishing it with its own earth until it endured the fire, and then it performs works and transmutations. As it is transmuted, so it transmutes. . . . It is found in all minerals and has a symbolum133 with them all. But it arises midway between the earthly and the watery, or midway between [mediocriter]134 a subtle living oil and a very subtle spirit. From the watery part of the earth it has its weight and motion from above downwards, its brightness, fluidity, and silver hue. . . . But quicksilver is clearly seen to have a gross substance, like the Monocalus,135 which excels even gold in the heaviness of its immense weight.136 When it is in its nature137 it is of the strongest composition [fortissimae compositionis]138 and of uniform nature, since it is not divided [or: is indivisible]. It can in no way be separated into parts, because it either escapes from the fire with its whole substance or endures with it in the fire. For this reason the cause of perfection is necessarily seen in it.
[713] Since Mercurius is the soul of the gold and of the silver, the conjunction of these two must be accomplished:
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[715] In these words Albertus Magnus, more than three hundred years earlier than Dorn, describes the celestial substance, the balsam of life, and the hidden truth. His description has roots that go still further back into Greek alchemy, but I cannot discuss this here. His account is sufficient for our purpose: it describes a transcendental substance characterized, as is only to be expected, by a large number of antinomies. Unequivocal statements can be made only in regard to immanent objects; transcendental ones can be expressed only by paradox. Thus, they are and they are not (that is to say, not to be found in our experience). Even the physicist is compelled by experience to make antinomian statements when he wants to give a concrete description of transcendental facts, such as the nature of light or of the smallest particles of matter, which he represents both as corpuscles and as waves. In the same way, the quicksilver is a material substance and at the same time a living spirit whose nature can be expressed by all manner of symbolic synonymsthough only, it is true, when it is made fire-resistant by artificial means. The quicksilver is a substance and yet not a substance, since, as a natural element, it does not resist fire and can do this only through the secret of art, thereby turning into a magical substance so wonderful that there is no prospect of our ever coming across it in reality. This clearly means that quicksilver is the symbol for a transcendental idea which is alleged to become manifest in it when the art has made it capable of resisting fire. It is also assumed that this occult quality is at least potentially present in Mercurius, since he is the prima materia of all metals and is found in all minerals. He is not only the initial material of the process but also its end-product, the lapis Philosophorum. Thus he is at the outset a significant exception among the metals and chemical elements. He is the primordial matter from which God created all material things. The change which the artifex proposes to induce in it consists, among other things, in giving it immense weight and indivisible wholeness. This strange statement assumes another aspect when we compare it with the modern view that matter consists of extraordinarily, indeed immensely heavy elementary corpuscles which in a certain sense are of uniform nature and apparently indivisible. They are the bricks nature builds with and they therefore contain everything that nature contains, so that each of them represents the whole of the universe. From this point of view it almost seems as if Albertus Magnus had anticipated one of the greatest physical discoveries of our time. This, of course, would be to recognize only the physical truth of his intuition, but not the symbolic implications which were bound up with it in the medieval mind.
[716] If we have hazarded a parallel between Albertuss views and the discontinuity of protons and energy quanta, we are obliged to attempt another parallel in regard to the symbolical statements. These, as we have seen from Dorn (supra, sec. 3), refer to the psychological aspect of Mercurius. In order to avoid needless repetition, I must here refer the reader to my earlier investigations of Mercurius and the symbols of the self in alchemy. Anyone who knows the extraordinary importance of the concept of psychic wholeness in the practical as well as theoretical psychology of the unconscious will not be surprised to learn that Hermetic philosophy gave this idea, in the form of the lapis Philosophorum, pre-eminence over all other concepts and symbols. Dorn in particular made this abundantly and unequivocally clear, in which respect he has the authority of the oldest sources. It is not true that alchemy devised such an interpretation of the arcanum only at the end of the sixteenth century; on the contrary, the idea of the self affords the clue to the central symbols of the art in all centuries, in Europe, the Near East, and in China. Here again I must refer the reader to my previous works.139 Unfortunately it is not possible to exhaust the wealth of alchemical ideas in a single volume.
6.0 - Conscious, Unconscious, and Individuation, #The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
Hollandus, Joannes Isaacs. Opera mineralia. Middelburg, 1600.
Homer. The Odyssey. Translated by E. V. Rieu. (Penguin Classics.)
Appendix 4 - Priest Spells, #Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2E, #unset, #Zen
"know" one fact--ahead, left, or right, about the following subjects: the ground, plants, minerals, bodies of water, people, general animal population, presence of woodl and creatures, etc. The presence of powerful unnatural creatures also can be detected, as can the general state of the natural setting. The spell is most effective in outdoor settings, operating in a radius of one-half mile for each level of the caster. In natural underground settings--caves, cavern, etc.--the range is limited to 10 yards per caster level. In constructed settings (dungeons and towns), the spell will not function. The DM may limit the casting of this spell to once per month.
SPELL - Control Winds (Alteration)
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The reverse, transmute mud to rock, hardens normal mud or quicksand into soft stone (sandstone or similar mineral) permanently unless magically changed. Creatures in the mud are allowed a saving throw to escape before the area is hardened to stone. Dry sand is unaffected.
The material components for the spell are clay and water (or sand, lime, and water for
BOOK II. -- PART I. ANTHROPOGENESIS., #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
* These elements are: -- The cosmic, the terrene, the mineral, the vegetable, the animal, the aqueous,
and finally the human -- in their physical, spiritual, and psychic aspects.
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of chemistry, or rather alchemy, of mineralogy, geology, physics and astronomy.
Several times the writer has put to herself the question: "Is the story of Exodus -- in its details at least -as narrated in the Old Testament, original? Or is it, like the story of Moses himself and many others,
BOOK II. -- PART III. ADDENDA. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
forms, types and species; every type of the preceding organic forms -- vegetable, animal and human -changes and is perfected in the next, even to the mineral, which has received in this Round its final
opacity and hardness; its softer portions having formed the present vegetation; the astral relics of
BOOK II. -- PART II. THE ARCHAIC SYMBOLISM OF THE WORLD-RELIGIONS, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
numbers. From minerals or "soft
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
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is corroborated in mineralogy, botany, and even in geology, as was demonstrated in the section on
"Ancient Chronology," by the compound number seven, the three and the four being in it. Salt in
--
and others, in the First Round, through all the three kingdoms -- the mineral, the vegetable, and the
animal -- in this our Fourth Round, every mammal has sprung from Man if the semi-ethereal, manyshaped creature with the human Monad in it, of the first two races, can be regarded as Man. But it
BOOK I. -- PART I. COSMIC EVOLUTION, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
the lowest to the highest Manas, from mineral and plant, up to the holiest archangel (Dhyani-Buddha).
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--
to mineral Atom, from the highest Dhyan Chohan to the smallest infusoria, in the fullest acceptation of
the term, and whether applied to the spiritual, intellectual, or physical worlds -- this is the one
--
MAN is the first form that appears thereon, being preceded only by the mineral and vegetable
kingdoms -- even the latter having to develop and continue its further evolution through man. This
--
47 (fifth edition) it is said: -" . . . the spiritual monads . . . do not fully complete their mineral existence on Globe A, then complete
it on Globe B, and so on. They pass several times round the whole circle as minerals, and then again
several times round as vegetables, and several times as animals. We purposely refrain for the present
--
function it is to pass in the first Round through the whole triple cycle of the mineral, vegetable, and
animal kingdoms in their most ethereal, filmy, and rudimentary forms, in order to clo the themselves
--
between the mineral epoch on Globe A, and the man-epoch,* that: "The full development of the
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
--
begins, the mineral life-impulse overflows into Globe B. Then, when the vegetable development on
Globe A is complete and the animal development begins, the vegetable life-impulse overflows to
Globe B, and the mineral impulse passes on to Globe C. Then finally comes the human life-impulse
on Globe A." (Page 49.)
--
reached. This is evident, for as said, " . . . there are processes of evolution which precede the mineral
kingdom, and thus a wave of evolution, indeed several waves of evolution, precede the mineral wave
in its progress round the spheres" (ibid).
And now we have to quote from another article, "The mineral Monad" in "Five Years of Theosophy,"
p. 273 et seq.
--
primordial homogeneous matter) to its third degree -- i.e., from full unconsciousness to semiperception; the second or higher group embraces the kingdoms from vegetable to man; the mineral
kingdom thus forming the central or turning point in the degrees of the "Monadic Essence,"
considered as an evoluting energy. Three stages (sub-physical) on the elemental side; the mineral
kingdom; three stages on the objective physical* side -- these are the (first or preliminary) seven links
--
evolution; a re-ascent from the deepest depths of materiality (the mineral) towards its status quo ante,
with a corresponding dissipation of concrete organism -- up to Nirvana, the vanishing point of
--
Evolution," and mineral-, vegetable-, animal- and man-"impulse," stops at the door of our Globe, at its
Fourth cycle or Round. It is at this point that the Cosmic Monad (Buddhi) will be wedded to and
--
Kingdoms, which precede the mineral (see diagram on p. 277 in Five Years of Theosophy), and
which, using the language of the Kabalists, answer in the Cosmic differentiation to the worlds of Form
--
upon the explanations given in answer to these questions in the above-cited article: "The mineral
Monad," written by the author.
--
it quite the Monas of the Peripatetics. Physically or constitutionally the mineral monad differs, of
course, from the human monad, which is neither physical nor can its constitution be rendered by
--
so the mineral Monad -- being at the opposite point of the circle -- is also One -- and from it proceed
the countless physical atoms, which Science is beginning to regard as individualized.
--
the Monadic, or rather Cosmic, Essence (if such a term be permitted) in the mineral, vegetable, and
animal, though the same throughout the series of cycles from the lowest elemental up to the Deva
--
have been to call it "the Monad manifesting in that form of Prakriti called the mineral Kingdom." The
atom, as represented in the ordinary scientific hypothesis, is not a particle of something, animated by a
--
progress of organisms on the Globes, says that "the mineral kingdom will no more develop the
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--
at all -- conceive a life-impulse giving birth to mineral form, as of the same sort of impulse concerned
to raise a race of apes into a race of rudimentary men." To those who bring this passage forward as
--
evolution of man from the animal, i.e., from the mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms, and advises
the student to hold to the doctrine of analogy and correspondences. Then it touches upon the mystery
--
every animate speck as in every mineral atom. But none of these has, like man, the consciousness of
the nature of that highest Being,* as none has that divine harmony in its form which man possesses. It
--
the world-stuff; also the mineral realm.
(3.) "The Spirit of the Vegetable Kingdom," of the "Abundant Vegetation."
--
I.). Then: "The functions of Jiva on this Earth are of a five-fold character. In the mineral atom it is
connected with the lowest principles of the Spirits of the Earth (the six-fold Dhyanis); in the vegetable
--
and see in them but occasional and abnormal visitors to which diseases are attri buted. Occultism -which discerns a life in every atom and molecule, whether in a mineral or human body, in air, fire or
water -- affirms that our whole body is built of such lives, the smallest bacteria under the microscope
--
of the seven globes of our chain* with their mineral,
[[Footnote(s)]] -------------------------------------------------
--
Evolution into the lowest form of matter -- the mineral. After a sevenfold gyration encased in the stone
(or that which will become mineral and stone in the Fourth Round), it creeps out of it, say, as a lichen.
Passing thence, through all the forms of vegetable matter, into what is termed animal matter, it has
--
during manvantara, as it is ever becoming,** not simply being; and mineral, vegetable, and human life
are always adapting their organisms to the then reigning Elements, and therefore those Elements were
--
would presume to deny to vegetation and even to minerals a consciousness of their own. All he can
say is, that this consciousness is beyond his comprehension.
--
seventh emanation of her last principle is: -(a) In the mineral, the spark that lies latent in it, and is called to its evanescent being by the
POSITIVE awakening the NEGATIVE (and so forth) . . . .
BOOK I. -- PART III. SCIENCE AND THE SECRET DOCTRINE CONTRASTED, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
(our world in this case) breathes, just as man and every living creature, plant, and even mineral does
upon the earth; and as our globe itself breathes every twenty-four hours. The dark region is not due "to
--
animal, vegetable, and mineral, and they are only returned to their high gaseous
condition when brought under a state of differential equilibrium." . . .
--
constitution of man, animal, plant, or mineral atom -- that the seventh and fourth members, we say, in
the geometrically and mathematically uniform workings of the immutable laws of Nature, always play
--
once attracted into the sphere of terrestrial activity, the Monadic Essence, passing through the mineral,
vegetable, and animal kingdoms, becomes man." (Esot. Catechism.) Again, "God, Monad, and Atom
--
of their own individual pilgrimage. Here, losing in the mineral kingdom their individuality, they begin
to ascend through the seven states of terrestrial evolution to that point where a correspondence is
--
bodies. Stones, minerals, rocks, and even chemical "atoms" are simply organic units in profound
lethargy. Their coma has an end and their inertia becomes activity.
BOOK I. -- PART II. THE EVOLUTION OF SYMBOLISM IN ITS APPROXIMATE ORDER, #The Secret Doctrine, #H P Blavatsky, #Theosophy
objective kingdom of minerals, in which latter that apperception is entirely latent, to re-develop only
in the plants). The mukhya "Creation," then, is the middle point between the three lower and the three
Book of Imaginary Beings (text), #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
In mineralogy the carbuncle, from the Latin carbunculus, a
little coal, is a ruby; as to the carbuncle of the ancients, it is
BOOK XXI. - Of the eternal punishment of the wicked in hell, and of the various objections urged against it, #City of God, #Saint Augustine of Hippo, #Christianity
Again, let us consider the wonders of lime; for besides growing white in fire, which makes other things black, and of which I have already said enough, it has also a mysterious property of conceiving fire within it. Itself cold to the touch, it yet has a hidden store of fire, which is not at once apparent to our senses, but which experience teaches us, lies as it were[Pg 419] slumbering within it even while unseen. And it is for this reason called "quick lime," as if the fire were the invisible soul quickening the visible substance or body. But the marvellous thing is, that this fire is kindled when it is extinguished. For to disengage the hidden fire the lime is moistened or drenched with water, and then, though it be cold before, it becomes hot by that very application which cools what is hot. As if the fire were departing from the lime and breathing its last, it no longer lies hid, but appears; and then the lime lying in the coldness of death cannot be requickened, and what we before called "quick," we now call "slaked." What can be stranger than this? Yet there is a greater marvel still. For if you treat the lime, not with water, but with oil, which is as fuel to fire, no amount of oil will heat it. Now if this marvel had been told us of some Indian mineral which we had no opportunity of experimenting upon, we should either have forthwith pronounced it a falsehood, or certainly should have been greatly astonished. But things that daily present themselves to our own observation we despise, not because they are really less marvellous, but because they are common; so that even some products of India itself, remote as it is from ourselves, cease to excite our admiration as soon as we can admire them at our leisure.[859]
The diamond is a stone possessed by many among ourselves, especially by jewellers and lapidaries, and the stone is so hard that it can be wrought neither by iron nor fire, nor, they say, by anything at all except goat's blood. But do you suppose it is as much admired by those who own it and are familiar with its properties as by those to whom it is shown for the first time? Persons who have not seen it perhaps do not believe what is said of it, or if they do, they wonder as at a thing beyond their experience; and if they happen to see it, still they marvel because they are unused to it, but gradually familiar experience [of it] dulls their admiration. We know[Pg 420] that the loadstone has a wonderful power of attracting iron. When I first saw it I was thunderstruck, for I saw an iron ring attracted and suspended by the stone; and then, as if it had communicated its own property to the iron it attracted, and had made it a substance like itself, this ring was put near another, and lifted it up; and as the first ring clung to the magnet, so did the second ring to the first. A third and a fourth were similarly added, so that there hung from the stone a kind of chain of rings, with their hoops connected, not interlinking, but attached together by their outer surface. Who would not be amazed at this virtue of the stone, subsisting as it does not only in itself, but transmitted through so many suspended rings, and binding them together by invisible links? Yet far more astonishing is what I heard about this stone from my brother in the episcopate, Severus bishop of Milevis. He told me that Bathanarius, once count of Africa, when the bishop was dining with him, produced a magnet, and held it under a silver plate on which he placed a bit of iron; then as he moved his hand with the magnet underneath the plate, the iron upon the plate moved about accordingly. The intervening silver was not affected at all, but precisely as the magnet was moved backwards and forwards below it, no matter how quickly, so was the iron attracted above. I have related what I myself have witnessed; I have related what I was told by one whom I trust as I trust my own eyes. Let me further say what I have read about this magnet. When a diamond is laid near it, it does not lift iron; or if it has already lifted it, as soon as the diamond approaches, it drops it. These stones come from India. But if we cease to admire them because they are now familiar, how much less must they admire them who procure them very easily and send them to us? Perhaps they are held as cheap as we hold lime, which, because it is common, we think nothing of, though it has the strange property of burning when water, which is wont to quench fire, is poured on it, and of remaining cool when mixed with oil, which ordinarily feeds fire.
Deutsches Requiem, #Labyrinths, #Jorge Luis Borges, #Poetry
Other nations live innocently, in themselves and for themselves, like minerals or
meteors; Germany is the universal mirror which receives all, the consciousness of the
IS - Chapter 1, #Invisible Cities, #Italo Calvino, #Fiction
he wants to remember: names of famous men, virtues, numbers, vegetable and mineral classifications,
dates of battles, constellations, parts of speech. Between each idea and each point of the itinerary an affinity or a contrast can be established, serving as an
Liber 46 - The Key of the Mysteries, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
whole of natural history. minerals, vegetables, animals were studied
analogically; and they attri buted their origin and their properties to
Liber 71 - The Voice of the Silence - The Two Paths - The Seven Portals, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
upon the path of Evolution. It is not so. minerals have no inherent
power of motion save intramolecularly. Plants grow and move, though but
The Act of Creation text, #The Act of Creation, #Arthur Koestler, #Psychology
'man consists of ninety per cent water and ten per cent minerals'
which one can regard, according to taste, as comic, intellectually
--
animal, vegetable, or mineral kingdom. The ensemble of these and
related operations constitutes the grammar and logic of dream-
--
devoted to collecting specimens of plants and minerals until a small,
embarrassing accident suddenly changed the direction of his interests
--
One day, when examining some minerals at the house of a
friend, he was clumsy enough to allow a beautiful cluster of prismatic
--
The result was Haiiy's Traite de mineralogie which made him a
member of the French Academy and a pioneer of the science of
--
Pasteur was studying his favourite mineral, Para-Tartrate, derived
from the red Tartar deposit in the vats of fermented wine. One day
--
perceptual forms animal, vegetable and mineral- which would not
work anyway. All that the model needs in the way of perceptual
The Book of Certitude - P1, #The Book of Certitude, #Baha u llah, #Baha i
And now, concerning His words-"The sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give light, and the stars shall fall from heaven." By the terms "sun" and "moon," mentioned in the writings of the Prophets of God, is not meant solely the sun and moon of the visible universe. Nay rather, manifold are the meanings they have intended for these terms. In every instance they have attached to them a particular significance. Thus, by the "sun" in one sense is meant those Suns of Truth Who rise from the dayspring of ancient glory, and fill the world with a liberal effusion of grace from on high. These Suns of Truth are the universal Manifestations of God in the worlds of His attributes and names. Even as the visible sun that assisteth, as decreed by God, the true One, the Adored, in the development of all earthly things, such as the trees, the fruits, and colours thereof, the minerals of the earth, and all that may be witnessed in the world of creation, so do the divine Luminaries, by their loving care and educative influence, cause the trees of divine unity, the fruits of His oneness, the leaves of detachment, the blossoms of knowledge and certitude, and the myrtles of wisdom and utterance, to exist and be made manifest. Thus it is that through the rise of these Luminaries of God the world is made new, the waters of everlasting life stream forth, the billows of loving-kindness surge, the clouds of grace are gathered, and the breeze of bounty bloweth upon all created things. It is the warmth that these Luminaries of God generate, and the undying fires they kindle, which cause the light of the love of God to burn fiercely in the heart of humanity. It is through the abundant grace of these Symbols of Detachment that the Spirit of life everlasting is breathed into the bodies of the dead. Assuredly the visible sun is but a sign of the splendour of that Day-star of Truth, that Sun Which can never have a peer, a likeness, or rival. Through Him all things live, move, and have their being. Through His grace they are made manifest, and unto Him they all return. From Him all things have sprung, and unto the treasuries of His revelation they all have repaired. From Him all created things did proceed, and to the depositories of His law they did revert. ["By the terms 'sun' and 'moon'..."] The Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh vol. 1 p. 167
34
The Coming Race Contents, #The Coming Race, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The mineral gave place to the plant, the
plant gave place to the animal and the
The Dwellings of the Philosophers, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
animals and vegetables, is no less apparent in the mineral kingdom, although it requires
sharper attention by the observer. Metals are indeed living and sensitive bodies. Proofs are:
--
two effects of metallic dynamism, two manifestations of mineral life? Yet, it is not enough for
the philosopher to only notice the elongation of an iron bar submitted to heat, he must know
--
birth, it follows that metals and minerals manifest their subjection to the law of predestination
which rules all created beings. To be born, to live, to die, or to transform oneself are the three
--
into one another, to produce gold and silver from coarse minerals, or from saline metallic
compounds, to force the gold potentially contained in silver and the silver potentially
--
final analysis, he was a spagyrist confined to the mineral realm and who voluntarily neglected
animal quintessences and vegetable alkaloids. And since medieval laws forbade private
--
of the mineral spirits emanating from the cement during the work. This transmission of the
excess sulphur held by the exalted gold takes place gradually under the effect of heat; it takes
--
which sets of mysterious circumstances have oriented and directed toward the mineral
kingdom. Thus given form and specified, subjected to the laws ruling the evolution and the
progression of minerals, this chaos, which has become a body, contains in a confused manner
the purest seed and the closest substance there is to minerals and metals. The philosophers
matter is therefore of mineral and metallic origin. Hence, one must only seek it in the mineral
and metallic root, which, says, Basil Valentine in the book, The Twelve Keys , was reserved by
--
substances alien to the mineral and metallic kingdoms, will never reach his goals. To turn the
apprentice away from the path of error the ancient authors teach him to always follow nature.
--
body tends to move away from the mineral quality. It is nevertheless the spirit of gold,
contained in a transparent oil, easily coagulable; the salt of metals, since all stone is salt, and
--
Eternal City, means strength, vigor, power, domination-, the mineral of Pierre-Jean Fabre
because he says gold lives in it (vitriol) (5) . It is also called Proteus because of its
--
from a seed that has been rendered prolific; similarly, minerals and metals have for seed a
metallic liquid fertilized by the mineral fire. The latter then is the active agent introduced by
the art into the mineral seed and Philale thes tells us, "it is the first to make the axle turn and
the wheel move". Hence it is easy to understand to use of this invisible and mysterious
--
This is why it easily unites with the mercury of minerals and imperfect metals. Philale thes
affirms that it is found hidden in the belly of Aries, or the Ram, constellation which the sun
--
nature; it is as efficient with animals and plants as it is within mineral and metallic bodies. It
is the magical ruby, agent endowed with igneous energy and subtlety and clothed in the color
--
metallic transmutation. Oriented, determined, and specific to the mineral realm, it is useless
and without action in the other two kingdoms. It becomes clearly evident from the preceding
--
to compose it only with metals, it would remain subjected to the conditions ruling mineral
nature and it would have no need to be fermented to operate transmutation. Furthermore, the
--
they are mineralized in their deposits. There they are combined with the specific agent, or
mineral spirit, which ensures their vitality, their nutrition, and their evolution to the term
--
distinguish metal from mineral aggregate.
However, the process that occurs inside of the metal-bearing deposits is far from simple.
--
waters, opening of the mine. Consequently metals solidify and remain mineralized with the
qualities acquired up to then, without being able to go beyond the evolutionary stage they
--
mercury, which is frequently found in its native state, or mineralized by sulphur (cinnabar),
either in the ore-bearing earth itself, or outside its place of origin.
--
knight signifies the initial encounter, the duel of the mineral products trying to defend their
threatened integrity, the griffin marks the result of the operation, veiled moreover by myths
--
symbolic Adam, which are described in their proper mineral expression of steel and bronze.
And the body close to the substance named adamas knot or sulphur of gold is the
--
Youth. It separates the heterogeneous impurities brought in from the mineral deposits, takes
away from them the infirmities contracted throughout the centuries; it reanimates them, gives
--
mixing it with other metals and minerals, they succeeded in communicating a few of my
virtues and strengths to metals that have some affinity and friendship for me. However, the
--
revealers of mineral mysteries. The gnome, fictitious creature, deformed but active, is the
esoteric expression of metallic life, of the occult dynamism of raw bodies which the art can
--
Thus the obscure, latent, and potential life of the two primitive mineral substances is
developed through the contact, the fight, and the union of their opposite natures, one igneous,
--
We already knew from the descriptions left by classical authors that this mineral substance as
it is extracted from its mine is scaly, black, hard, and dry. Some have called it leprous. The
--
mercury, quintessence of the gold of the sages and pure mineral seed: "He who has mollified
the dry Sun", said Henckel <19) , "by means of the wet moon to the extent that one has become
--
path drawn by the hieroglyph which borrows the shape of the number 4, and the mineral
antimony or stibium, clearly signified by this topographic word. The Greeks called native
--
for mineral stibnite, it possesses none of the required qualities, and whatever the manner in
which we want to treat it, neither the secret solvent nor the philosophical mercury will ever be
--
the sages, raw matter directly extracted from the mine, "is not properly mineral, and even less
metallic as Philale thes <30) teaches us; but without partaking of these two substances it is
--
stands in stead of mother to all metals". It is the metallic and mineral flower ([*235-3]
anthemon ), the first rose, black in truth, which has remained down here as a part of the
--
simmi, it is no longer the stibnite of mineralogists, but indeed a matter signed by nature, or
still better, a movement, a dynamism, or a vibration, a sealed life ([*236-6 simenai ) so as
--
(27) J.F. Henckel: Opuscules mineralogiques, ch. Ill, p. 404; Paris, Herissant, 1760.
(28) Translators Note; As seen on the American one dollar bill.
--
particular demonstrated the necessity, the utility of death and of mineral putrefaction by
using a simile drawn from wheatseed. They probably got the idea from the parable collected
--
previously diffuse in the darkness of mineral earth.
As for the philosophers mercury, whose elaboration is never revealed, not even under the
--
to alchemy, that part of science which studies the evolution of mineral bodies, we learn that it
deals with the original metallic matter, basis and foundation of the sacred art.
--
the author speaks very clearly. A shrub is a young tree, just a s a mineral is a young metal.
The bark of ganque which serves to envelop this mineral, allows man to identify it with
certainty, owing to the external characteristics it has taken on. We have already emphasized
--
faculty possessed by this mineral to partially transmute itself into gold. This curious property
is indicated by Philale thes in his Commentary on the Epistle of Ripley addressed to King
--
elements of the mineral chaos. To successfully perform this operation, one must know the
affinities of things, have a lot of skill, and perform a lot of work, as the Adept leaves us to
--
Sar the dwelling. Two men, of similar appearance and costume, express, one, the mineral
body, and two, the other the metallic body. This external similitude further reconciles fiction
--
them from the nutritive elements associated with the mineralizing elements responsible for
maintaining their activity, kills them by fixing the temporary and transitory form which they
had acquired. Such is the meaning of the two symbolic trees, one expressing mineral vitality,
the other metallic inertia.
--
metal he must take and what mineral he should choose in order to begin his first labor. Then,
pondering Natures operations, he will learn from her the manner of uniting the revivified
--
Danae represents our crude mineral, such as it is extracted from the mine. It is the earth of the
sages which contains within it the active and hidden spirit, alone capable, says Hermes. Of
--
expression of our mineral quintessence. It is the Isiac table carried out by the cubic throne of
the great goddess. By analogy, it is therefore sufficient to throw the die thrice on the table
--
alchemist will thus recognize that the mineral producers of mercury, which are also the
authors of its feeding, growth and life, must first be chosen with discernment and worked with
--
nature of the body, or, if you prefer, of the mineral casing containing this fire of the lamp
which only needs to be stirred up by ordinary fire to perform the most surprising of
--
find its equivalent in the mineral kingdom. As a consequence, if the dry and dead leaves yield
their part of nourishment and vitality to the survivor planted next to them, it is logical to
--
predisposition, which is dry and igneous, and with the dual mineral virtue, whose essence is to
be cold and humid. Thus can the stone realize in its state of perfect equilibrium the union of
--
It is an allusion to the necessity of our mineral seeds mortification and decomposition. For,
just has the grain of wheat could not germinate, produce, and multiply if putrefaction had not
--
the pivot of the art, consists in knowing how to extract, from metals or from minerals, this
first seed. It is the reason why the artists, at the beginning of his work, must completely
--
once more he has to ask the mineral kingdom for it. Yes, the second work will cost him more
fatigue and time than the first. And this is also in agreement with the art of the farmer. Do we
--
first mineral substance such as it is found in metal-bearing deposits where miners go in order
to tear it therefrom. It was formerly represented as the figure of Satan, in Notre-Dame de
--
seekers persisted in extracting it from matters more or less removed from the mineral
kingdom. Some thought they were preparing it when they saturated the ruinous volatile spirit
--
have been prepared "with stormy rains or with the fatty film which floats on mineral waters".
Finally, according to Lenglet-Dufresnoy, (6) , Olaus Borrichius (De Origine Chemiae et in
--
end into a small mass of a volume and weight much inferior to that of the original mineral
subject. This is what the Spanish axiom quite exactly justified, for the more reiterations, the
--
by the most striking examples that it is possible to encounter in the order of mineral things.
The hermetic work as a whole is indeed nothing but a perfect harmony, realizes in accordance
--
natural mineral bed to be lost. This is why the philosophers qualify them as dead and
recognize them as being improper to the labor of the Great Work until they have been
--
sulphurous origin. It is acknowledged as a mineral because it is bom from the primary
mercurial substance, the unique source of all metals; and sulphurous because this fire during
--
spite of the different causes, for in the mineral Work, the breaking of the crucible can
logically be attri buted only to a chemical action, unfortunately impossible to conceive or
--
odor, they insist, would suffice to cause death. Yet it is from this toxic mineral that the
universal medicine is made, which no human illness can resist, no matter how incurable it is
--
[*393-1] ( soru ), and the Hellenic mineralogists describe it as being a salt, of a strong and
unpleasant odor, which, when crushed, became black and took on a spongy and greasy
--
noteworthy and important mineral to which none other in nature could be compared and this
because vitriol familiarizes itself with all metals more than any other thing; it very closely
--
merit as reason requires it, since vitriol is preferable to other minerals and since the first rank
193
after metals must be given to it, For, although metals and minerals are gifted with great
virtues, vitriol is, nevertheless, the only one sufficient to extract and make the blessed stone,
--
(6) Valmont de Bomare: mineralogie ou Nouvelle Exposition du Regne mineral ( mineralogy or New Treatise on
the mineral Kingdom); Paris, Vincent, 1774.
(7) J.F. Henckel: Pyritologie (Pyritology), ch. 7, p. 184, op. cit.
--
force of all metals and minerals derived from salt and sulphur, and twice bom of Mercury",
writes Basil Valentine in the book of the Twelve Keys.
--
this ardent, active, and pure water that common metals, minerals, and stones have preserved,
is lacking only in gold. This sovereign to which so many people pay homage, for which so
--
the hermetic agent, the mysterious promoter of the transformations of the mineral nature and
that of the newly gained secret of the lost word. This agent was once upon a time called
--
explain that this matter, the vehicle of the mineral light, reveals itself, thanks to the radiant
signature of the spirit, as the promised land reserved for the chosen ones of Sapience.
--
many minerals which nature places at our disposal.
In charge of guarding the marvelous field, where philosophers go and get their treasures, the
--
which is its likeness. As for the volatile quality of our mineral, we see it translated by the
membranous wings with which the monster is equipped. And because it is said that it vomits
--
of other minerals and other metals, it preserves the principles necessary to the elaboration of
the Great Work. By its monstrous albeit expressive figuration, this primitive subject appears
--
the center of the composition, it indicates the mineral substance out of which the philosophers
draw the elements of the miraculous rebirth of the Phoenix, and it is this work of rebirth as a
--
the market. And so, minerals extracted from an ore-bearing bed, and metals out of casting are
hermetically expressed by a closed or sealed book. Similarly, these bodies, when submitted to
--
enclosed in the vile mineral matter, so as to build the sacred temple of Light (5) and to discover
other analogous secrets by J.N.V.E.J.E. containing 5 points of Alchemy, 1715.
--
[B] After several experiments on the vile mineral matter, until the yellow color, or the
fixation of the body, and from there to the crowned Sun, we had to wait until the matte had
--
and sometimes as Arabian gold. The sign, formed of four rays, indicates and seals the mineral
reducer. It is the greatest of all tinctures. In order to close, on a less austere note, this study of
--
from common men the true name of the secret mineral. It is in this mirror, say the masters,
that man can see nature unveiled. Thanks to this mirror, he can know the ancient truth in its
--
fixed on a mirror. And this mirror, signature of the dross mineral provided by nature, becomes
luminous while reflecting the light, that is while manifesting its vitality in the snake, or in
--
learned in the qualities of the subject know that the universal solvent is a true mineral of dry
and fibrous appearance, of solid and hard consistency and of crystalline texture. Therefore it
--
sample of mining productions, would perhaps be more in its place in a mineralogy museum,
rather than in the middle of a park which the public is not allowed to enter.
--
guarding the mineral treasures, constantly watching the gold, silver and precious stone mines,
appear as the symbolic representation, the humanized figures of the vital metallic spirit and of
--
configuration allows us to recognize only the mineralogical characteristics of saline bodies in
general. It teaches us that the mercury is a salt which we already knew and that this salt
originates in the mineral realm. Furthermore, it is what Claveus, The Cosmopolite, Limojon
de St Didier, Basil Valentine, Huginus a Barma, Batsdorff, etc., emulate, assert and repeat
--
by the old alchemists, in order to express the metallic gold or mineral sun. On the spiritual
level, the Golden Age is personified by the evangelist St Luke. The Greek [*520-2] ( Luchas ),
The Gold Bug, #unset, #Arthur C Clarke, #Fiction
We now worked in earnest, and never did I pass ten minutes of more intense excitement. During this interval we had fairly unearthed an oblong chest of wood, which, from its perfect preservation, and wonderful hardness, had plainly been subjected to some mineralizing process --perhaps that of the Bi-chloride of Mercury. This box was three feet and a half long, three feet broad, and two and a half feet deep. It was firmly secured by bands of wrought iron, riveted, and forming a kind of trellis-work over the whole. On each side of the chest, near the top, were three rings of iron --six in all --by means of which a firm hold could be obtained by six persons. Our utmost united endeavors served only to disturb the coffer very slightly in its bed. We at once saw the impossibility of removing so great a weight. Luckily, the sole fastenings of the lid consisted of two sliding bolts. These we drew back --trembling and panting with anxiety. In an instant, a treasure of incalculable value lay gleaming before us. As the rays of the lanterns fell within the pit, there flashed upwards, from a confused heap of gold and of jewels, a glow and a glare that absolutely dazzled our eyes.
I shall not pretend to describe the feelings with which I gazed. Amazement was, of course, predominant. Legrand appeared exhausted with excitement, and spoke very few words. Jupiter's countenance wore, for some minutes, as deadly a pallor as it is possible, in the nature of things, for any negro's visage to assume. He seemed stupefied --thunder-stricken. Presently he fell upon his knees in the pit, and, burying his naked arms up to the elbows in gold, let them there remain, as if enjoying the luxury of a bath. At length, with a deep sigh, he exclaimed, as if in a soliloquy.
Verses of Vemana, #is Book, #unset, #Zen
The tree of beatitude has no (beginning) root but four fair boughs (forms of existence, animal, vegetable, insects, minerals). It is open to view and produces fruit. If thou eat them, they have no taste but cause appetite.
266
--- Overview of noun mineral
The noun mineral has 1 sense (first 1 from tagged texts)
1. (9) mineral ::: (solid homogeneous inorganic substances occurring in nature having a definite chemical composition)
--- Overview of adj mineral
The adj mineral has 2 senses (no senses from tagged texts)
1. mineral ::: (relating to minerals; "mineral elements"; "mineral deposits")
2. mineral ::: (composed of matter other than plant or animal; "the inorganic mineral world")
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun mineral
1 sense of mineral
Sense 1
mineral
=> material, stuff
=> substance
=> matter
=> physical entity
=> entity
=> part, portion, component part, component, constituent
=> relation
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun mineral
1 sense of mineral
Sense 1
mineral
=> ader wax, earth wax, mineral wax, ozokerite, ozocerite
=> amblygonite
=> amphibole
=> amphibole group
=> apatite
=> aragonite
=> argentite
=> argyrodite
=> arsenopyrite, mispickel
=> asphalt, mineral pitch
=> augite
=> baddeleyite
=> bastnasite, bastnaesite
=> bauxite
=> beryl
=> borax
=> bornite, peacock ore
=> carnallite
=> cassiterite
=> celestite
=> cerussite, white lead ore
=> chalcocite, copper glance
=> chalcopyrite, copper pyrites
=> chlorite
=> chromite
=> chrysoberyl
=> cinnabar
=> cobaltite
=> halite, rock salt
=> columbite-tantalite, coltan
=> cordierite
=> corundom, corundum
=> cristobalite
=> crocolite
=> cryolite, Greenland spar
=> cuprite
=> dolomite, bitter spar
=> earth color
=> emery
=> erythrite, cobalt bloom
=> fergusonite
=> fluorite, fluorspar, fluor
=> gadolinite, ytterbite
=> galena
=> garnet
=> garnierite
=> germanite
=> gibbsite
=> glauconite
=> greenockite, cadmium sulphide
=> gypsum
=> hausmannite
=> heavy spar, barite, barytes, barium sulphate
=> hemimorphite, calamine
=> ilmenite
=> jadeite
=> kainite
=> kaolinite
=> kernite
=> kieserite
=> kyanite, cyanite
=> langbeinite
=> magnesite
=> malachite
=> maltha, mineral tar
=> manganite
=> meerschaum, sepiolite
=> mica, isinglass
=> millerite
=> molybdenite
=> monazite
=> nepheline, nephelite
=> nephelinite
=> niobite, columbite
=> nitrocalcite
=> olivine
=> olivenite
=> opal
=> ore
=> orpiment
=> osmiridium, iridosmine
=> pentlandite
=> periclase, magnesia, magnesium oxide
=> pinite
=> pollucite
=> psilomelane
=> pyrite, iron pyrite, fool's gold
=> pyrolusite
=> pyromorphite, green lead ore
=> pyrophyllite
=> pyroxene
=> pyrrhotite, pyrrhotine, magnetic pyrites
=> quartz
=> realgar
=> red clay
=> rhodochrosite
=> rhodonite
=> rutile
=> samarskite
=> sapphirine
=> scheelite
=> smaltite
=> sodalite
=> spar
=> spinel
=> spodumene
=> stannite, tin pyrites
=> stibnite
=> strontianite
=> sylvanite, graphic tellurium
=> sylvite, sylvine
=> talc, talcum
=> tantalite
=> thorite
=> thortveitite
=> topaz
=> tourmaline
=> tridymite
=> turquoise
=> vanadinite
=> vermiculite
=> vesuvianite, vesuvian, idocrase
=> wolframite, iron manganese tungsten
=> wollastonite
=> wulfenite
=> wurtzite
=> xenotime
=> zeolite
=> zinc blende, blende, sphalerite
=> zinkenite
=> zircon, zirconium silicate
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun mineral
1 sense of mineral
Sense 1
mineral
=> material, stuff
--- Similarity of adj mineral
2 senses of mineral
Sense 1
mineral
Sense 2
mineral
=> inorganic (vs. organic)
--- Antonyms of adj mineral
1 of 2 senses of mineral
Sense 2
mineral
INDIRECT (VIA inorganic) -> organic
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun mineral
1 sense of mineral
Sense 1
mineral
-> material, stuff
=> ballast
=> bedding material, bedding, litter
=> rind
=> precursor
=> atom, molecule, particle, corpuscle, mote, speck
=> ammunition
=> floccule, floc
=> HAZMAT
=> aggregate
=> raw material, staple
=> sorbate
=> sorbent, sorbent material
=> diamagnet
=> mineral
=> rock, stone
=> adhesive material, adhesive agent, adhesive
=> sealing material
=> animal material
=> fluff
=> bimetal
=> abrasive, abradant, abrasive material
=> chemical, chemical substance
=> composite material
=> conductor
=> insulator, dielectric, nonconductor
=> contaminant, contamination
=> particulate, particulate matter
=> dust
=> elastomer
=> earth, ground
=> discharge, emission
=> detritus
=> waste, waste material, waste matter, waste product
=> fiber, fibre
=> filling, fill
=> foam
=> homogenate
=> humate
=> impregnation
=> paper
=> packing material, packing, wadding
=> coloring material, colouring material, color, colour
=> plant material, plant substance
=> radioactive material
=> thickening, thickener
=> toner
=> transparent substance, translucent substance
=> undercut
=> builder, detergent builder
=> vernix, vernix caseosa
=> wad
--- Pertainyms of adj mineral
2 senses of mineral
Sense 1
mineral
Pertains to noun mineral (Sense 1)
=>mineral
=> material, stuff
Sense 2
mineral
--- Derived Forms of adj mineral
--- Grep of noun mineral
mineral
mineral deficiency
mineral dressing
mineral extraction
mineral jelly
mineral kingdom
mineral oil
mineral pitch
mineral processing
mineral resources
mineral tar
mineral vein
mineral water
mineral wax
mineral wool
mineralocorticoid
mineralogist
mineralogy
Wikipedia - Abano Mineral Lake Natural Monument -- Carbon dioxide effervescent lake in Kazbegi Municipality, Georgia
Wikipedia - Adelite -- arsenate mineral
Wikipedia - Adolf Erik Nordenskiold -- Finland-Swedish baron, geologist, mineralogist and Arctic explorer
Wikipedia - Aenigmatite -- Sapphirine supergroup, single chain inosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Aeschynite-(Ce) -- Oxide mineral
Wikipedia - Aggregate (geology) -- Mass of rock, gravel, sand, soil particles, or of minerals in a rock
Wikipedia - Alabaster -- Lightly colored, translucent, and soft calcium minerals, typically gypsum
Wikipedia - Allophane -- An amorphous to poorly crystalline hydrous aluminium silicate clay mineraloid
Wikipedia - Alunite -- Alunite supergroup, sulfate mineral
Wikipedia - Amethyst -- Mineral, quartz variety
Wikipedia - Ametrine -- Mineral, quartz variety
Wikipedia - Amicite -- Zeolite mineral
Wikipedia - Analcime -- A zeolite mineral
Wikipedia - Anapaite -- Hydrous phosphate mineral
Wikipedia - Andradite -- Nesosilicate mineral species of garnet
Wikipedia - Anselmus de Boodt -- Belgian mineralogist and physician
Wikipedia - Antigorite -- Monoclinic mineral
Wikipedia - Apatite -- Mineral group, calcium phosphate
Wikipedia - Aphanite -- Igneous rocks which are so fine-grained that their component mineral crystals are not detectable by the unaided eye
Wikipedia - Apophyllite -- Phyllosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Aquae Cutiliae -- Mineral spring in Italy
Wikipedia - Archibald Bruce (mineralogist)
Wikipedia - Armalcolite -- Oxide mineral
Wikipedia - Arsenuranospathite -- Rare mineral
Wikipedia - Arthur Hutchinson (mineralogist)
Wikipedia - Artificial seawater -- A mixture of dissolved mineral salts (and sometimes vitamins) that simulates seawater
Wikipedia - Asbestos and the law -- Legal and regulatory issues involving the mineral asbestos
Wikipedia - Asbestos -- Group of highly stable, non-flammable silicate minerals with a fibrous structure
Wikipedia - Asia Resource Minerals -- International mining group
Wikipedia - Augelite -- Aluminium phosphate mineral
Wikipedia - Austin Burton Edwards -- Australian mineralogist and petrologist
Wikipedia - Austinite -- Arsenate mineral
Wikipedia - Azurite -- Copper carbonate mineral
Wikipedia - Baranof Warm Springs (thermal mineral springs) -- Thermal spring
Wikipedia - Beach Sand Minerals Exploitation Centre -- Research institute in Bangladesh
Wikipedia - Biomineralization -- Process by which living organisms produce minerals
Wikipedia - Biotite -- Group of minerals
Wikipedia - Bityite -- Brittle mica, phyllosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Botallackite -- Halide mineral
Wikipedia - Botryoidal -- Mineral shape
Wikipedia - Bowen's reaction series -- Order of crystallization of minerals in magma
Wikipedia - Breitenbush Hot Springs (thermal mineral springs) -- Thermal spring system
Wikipedia - Buserite -- Type of mineral
Wikipedia - Calamine (mineral) -- Zinc ore group
Wikipedia - Calcite -- Carbonate mineral and polymorph of calcium carbonate
Wikipedia - Calcium borate -- A bluish white crystal found in some minerals
Wikipedia - Calomel -- Mineral form of the mercury(I) chloride
Wikipedia - Cancrinite -- Feldspathoid mineral
Wikipedia - Carbonatite -- Igneous rock with more than 50% carbonate minerals
Wikipedia - Cassiterite -- Tin oxide mineral, SnOM-bM-^BM-^B
Wikipedia - Category:Carbonate minerals
Wikipedia - Category:Mineral acids
Wikipedia - Category:Mineralogists
Wikipedia - Category:Mineralogy
Wikipedia - Category:Silicate minerals
Wikipedia - Chamosite -- Phyllosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Charles Anderson (mineralogist)
Wikipedia - Charles L. Christ -- American geochemist and mineralogist
Wikipedia - Chena Hot Springs (thermal mineral springs) -- Thermal springs
Wikipedia - Chronic kidney disease-mineral and bone disorder -- Complication of chronic kidney disease
Wikipedia - Chrysoberyl -- Mineral or gemstone of beryllium aluminate
Wikipedia - Cinnabar -- Red mercury sulfide mineral
Wikipedia - Classification of non-silicate minerals -- A list of IMA recognized minerals and groupings
Wikipedia - Classification of organic minerals -- A list of IMA recognized minerals and groupings
Wikipedia - Classification of silicate minerals -- A list of IMA recognized minerals and groupings
Wikipedia - Clastic rock -- Sedimentary rocks made of mineral or rock fragments
Wikipedia - Claudine Picardet -- French chemist, mineralogist, meteorologist and translator
Wikipedia - Clay chemistry -- The chemical structures, properties and reactions of clay minerals
Wikipedia - Clay minerals
Wikipedia - Clay mineral -- Hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates
Wikipedia - Clay-water interaction -- Various progressive interactions between clay minerals and water
Wikipedia - Clay -- A finely-grained natural rock or soil containing mainly clay minerals
Wikipedia - Coesite -- Silica mineral, rare polymorph of quartz
Wikipedia - Concretion -- Compact mass formed by precipitation of mineral cement between particles
Wikipedia - Contrex -- Mineral water brand
Wikipedia - Cornwallite -- Copper arsenate mineral
Wikipedia - Corundum -- Oxide mineral
Wikipedia - Cristobalite -- Silica mineral, polymorph of quartz
Wikipedia - Critical mineral raw materials
Wikipedia - Crystal habit -- Mineralogical term for the visible shape of a mineral
Wikipedia - David Forbes (mineralogist)
Wikipedia - Davisite -- Inosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Deep sea mining -- Mineral extraction from the ocean floor
Wikipedia - Delvalle Lowry -- British geologist, mineralogist, author and scientific illustrator
Wikipedia - Department of Mineral Resources and Energy -- Department of the South African government
Wikipedia - Department of Mineral Resources (South Africa) -- Department of the national government of South Africa
Wikipedia - Desalination -- Removal of salts and minerals from a substance
Wikipedia - Desert Hot Springs (thermal mineral springs) -- Thermal springs in Riverside County, California
Wikipedia - Dietary mineral
Wikipedia - Diopside -- Pyroxene mineral
Wikipedia - Dollaseite-(Ce) -- Epidote supergroup, sorosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Dolomite (mineral) -- Carbonate mineral - CaMg(COM-bM-^BM-^C)M-bM-^BM-^B
Wikipedia - Dolomite (rock) -- Sedimentary carbonate rock that contains a high percentage of the mineral dolomite
Wikipedia - Doris Schachner -- German mineralogist
Wikipedia - Drift mining -- The mining of a mineral deposit by underground methods
Wikipedia - Dunite -- An ultramafic and ultrabasic rock from Earth's mantle and made of the mineral olivine.
Wikipedia - Ecover -- Belgian company that manufactures cleaning products made from plant-based and mineral ingredients
Wikipedia - Edenite -- Amphibole, double chain inosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Edward Daniel Clarke -- English naturalist, mineralogist and traveller
Wikipedia - Endmember -- Mineral at the end of a mineral series
Wikipedia - Epidote -- Sorosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Ernest-Francois Mallard -- French mineralogist
Wikipedia - Evaporite -- A water-soluble mineral sediment formed by evaporation from an aqueous solution
Wikipedia - Evian -- French brand of mineral water
Wikipedia - Fayalite -- Olivine, nesosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Feklichevite -- Mineral
Wikipedia - Feldspar -- A group of rock-forming tectosilicate minerals
Wikipedia - Feldspathoid -- Mineral grouping of silica poor tectosilicates
Wikipedia - Ferrihydrite -- Iron oxyhydroxide mineral
Wikipedia - Ferrogedrite -- Amphibole, double chain inosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Ferronickel platinum -- Rare occurring mineral
Wikipedia - Ferroselite -- Sulfide mineral
Wikipedia - Flint -- Cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz
Wikipedia - Fludrocortisone -- Mineralocorticoid
Wikipedia - Foidolite -- A rare coarse-grained intrusive igneous rock in which more than 60% of light-coloured minerals are feldspathoids
Wikipedia - Forsterite -- Olivine, nesosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Fort Wolters -- Former US military base near Mineral Wells, TX
Wikipedia - Fracture (mineralogy)
Wikipedia - Frank Hawthorne -- Canadian mineralogist and crystallographer
Wikipedia - Franz Ambrosius Reuss -- Czech geologist, mineralogist and balneologist (1761-1830)
Wikipedia - Franz-Joseph Muller von Reichenstein -- Austrian mineralogist
Wikipedia - Frederick Augustus Genth -- United States chemist and mineralogist
Wikipedia - Friedrich Mohs -- German geologist and mineralogist
Wikipedia - Fumarole mineral -- Minerals deposited by gases
Wikipedia - Funginite -- Coal mineral based on fossilized fungus
Wikipedia - Gabrielle Donnay -- German-born American mineralogist
Wikipedia - Galena -- natural mineral form of lead sulfide
Wikipedia - Garnet -- Mineral, semi-precious stone
Wikipedia - Gemstone -- Piece of mineral crystal used to make jewelry
Wikipedia - Geological Survey and Mineral Exploration of Iran -- Iranian Geological & Mineral Exploration government agency
Wikipedia - George Frederick Kunz -- American mineralogist (1856-1932)
Wikipedia - George Gibbs (mineralogist)
Wikipedia - George R. Rossman -- American mineralogist and professor (born 1944)
Wikipedia - George Switzer (mineralogist) -- American mineralogist
Wikipedia - Georgius Agricola -- German mineralogist
Wikipedia - Gerard Troost -- American mineralogist
Wikipedia - Gibbsite -- Form of aluminium hydroxide, mineral
Wikipedia - Gottlob Linck -- German mineralogist
Wikipedia - Graphite -- Allotrope of carbon, mineral, substance
Wikipedia - Greigite -- Iron sulfide mineral of spinel structure
Wikipedia - Gustav Tschermak von Seysenegg -- Austrian mineralogist
Wikipedia - Gypsum -- Mineral
Wikipedia - Gyrolite -- Rare phyllosilicate mineral crystallizing in spherules
Wikipedia - Halite -- Mineral form of sodium chloride
Wikipedia - Halloysite -- Aluminosilicate clay mineral
Wikipedia - Hans P. Eugster -- Swiss-American geochemist, mineralogist, and petrologist
Wikipedia - Hard water -- Water that has a high mineral content
Wikipedia - Hazenite -- Phosphate mineral
Wikipedia - Hectorite -- Rare trioctahedral (Mg<sup>2+</sup>, Li<sup>+</sup>) sodium smectite, phyllosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Hematite -- Common iron oxide mineral
Wikipedia - Henry Garber Hanks -- American gold miner, mineralogist, and businessman from California
Wikipedia - Herbert Smith (mineralogist)
Wikipedia - Huntite -- Carbonate mineral
Wikipedia - Hyalophane -- mineral; intermediate member of a solid solution series of celsian and orthoclase minerals
Wikipedia - Hydrochloric acid -- strong mineral acid
Wikipedia - Hydroxyapatite -- Naturally occurring mineral form of calcium apatite
Wikipedia - Industrial Minerals (magazine) -- Online service and magazine
Wikipedia - International Seabed Authority -- Intergovernmental body to regulate mineral-related activities in the seabed
Wikipedia - Irmgard Abs-Wurmbach -- German mineralogist
Wikipedia - Isaac Lawson -- Scottish physician and mineralogist
Wikipedia - Isklar -- Brand of mineral water from Norway
Wikipedia - Ivan Kostov Nikolov -- Bulgarian mineralogist
Wikipedia - Jacques Louis, Comte de Bournon -- French soldier and mineralogist
Wikipedia - Jadeite -- Pyroxene mineral
Wikipedia - James Gregory (mineralogist)
Wikipedia - James Smithson -- British chemist and mineralogist
Wikipedia - James Sowerby -- British botanical illustrator and mineralogist (1757-1822)
Wikipedia - James Tennant (mineralogist)
Wikipedia - Jean-Raymond Boulle -- Diamond and mineral businessman
Wikipedia - Jeju Samdasoo -- Korean brand of mineral water
Wikipedia - Jet (gemstone) -- Mineraloid and minor gemstone
Wikipedia - Johan Gadolin -- Finnish chemist, physicist and mineralogist
Wikipedia - John Frank Schairer -- American geochemist, mineralogist, and petrologist
Wikipedia - John Leslie Jambor -- Outstanding contributions in the field of mineralogy
Wikipedia - Kaiama Declaration -- Declaration of ijaw youth district in control for minerals resources
Wikipedia - Kaolinite -- Layered non-swelling aluminosilicate 1:1 clay mineral
Wikipedia - Kenhsuite -- Halide-sulfide mineral
Wikipedia - Kernowite -- Copper iron arsenate mineral
Wikipedia - Khajidsuren Bolormaa -- Mongolian mineralogist
Wikipedia - Kidney stone disease -- Formation of mineral 'stones' in the urinary tract
Wikipedia - Klerksdorp sphere -- Small mineral objects, often spherical to disc-shaped, found in pyrophyllite deposits near Ottosdal, South Africa
Wikipedia - Krinovite -- Triclinic meteorite mineral
Wikipedia - Kushiroite -- Pyroxene, inosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - KVTT -- Radio station in Mineral Wells-Dallas, Texas
Wikipedia - Kyanite -- aluminosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Lava Hot Springs (thermal mineral springs) -- Thermal springs
Wikipedia - Lazurite -- A tectosilicate mineral and a member of the sodalite group
Wikipedia - Leonard Gale -- Professor of chemistry and mineralogy
Wikipedia - Leucite -- Potassium and aluminium tectosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Limonite -- Oxide mineral
Wikipedia - Liquid paraffin (drug) -- Mineral oil used in cosmetics and medicine
Wikipedia - Liroconite -- Copper aluminium arsenate mineral
Wikipedia - List of meteorite minerals -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of mineralogists -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of minerals approved by IMA (A) -- Wikimedia list article
Wikipedia - List of minerals approved by IMA -- List of minerals, intended to be as complete as possible
Wikipedia - List of minerals named after people -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of minerals of Pakistan
Wikipedia - List of minerals -- A list of minerals for which there are articles on Wikipedia
Wikipedia - List of mountains in Mineral County, Montana -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - List of U.S. state minerals, rocks, stones and gemstones -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - Lists of countries by mineral production -- Wikipedia list article
Wikipedia - Lodestone -- Naturally magnetized mineral
Wikipedia - Luminescence dating -- Form of dating how long ago mineral grains had been last exposed to sunlight or heating
Wikipedia - Lustre (mineralogy) -- Manner in which light interacts with a crystal, rock, or mineral's surface
Wikipedia - Mackinawite -- Iron nickel sulfide mineral
Wikipedia - Mafic -- Silicate mineral or igneous rock that is rich in magnesium and iron
Wikipedia - Magnesia (mineral)
Wikipedia - Magnetite -- Iron ore mineral
Wikipedia - Malachite -- Mineral variety of copper carbonate
Wikipedia - Marie-Therese Mackowsky -- German mineralogist
Wikipedia - Mariya Borodayevskaya -- Soviet geologist and mineralogist
Wikipedia - Marjorie Hooker -- Mineralogist, petrologist and bibliographer
Wikipedia - Marshall McDonald -- American engineer, professor, geologist, mineralogist, pisciculturist, and fisheries scientist
Wikipedia - Mary Winearls Porter -- British crystallographer and mineralogist
Wikipedia - Meerschaum pipe -- Smoking pipe made from the mineral sepiolite
Wikipedia - Melinda Darby Dyar -- American planetary geologist, mineralogist and spectroscopist
Wikipedia - Mendipite -- Oxyhalide of lead. Rare mineral found in the Mendip Hills
Wikipedia - Metamictisation -- Internal alpha irradiation due to radioactive elements leading to the destruction of a mineral's crystal structure
Wikipedia - Metamorphism -- The change of minerals in pre-existing rocks without melting into liquid magma
Wikipedia - Mica -- Group of phyllosilicate minerals
Wikipedia - Michael Fleischer (mineralogist)
Wikipedia - Mineral acid -- Acid derived from inorganic compounds
Wikipedia - Mineral Center, Minnesota -- Unincorporated community in Minnesota, United States
Wikipedia - Mineral County, Colorado -- County in Colorado, US
Wikipedia - Mineral evolution -- Increasing mineral diversity over time
Wikipedia - Mineral exploration
Wikipedia - Mineral Fire (2020) -- 2020 wildfire in Fresno, California
Wikipedia - Mineral Hot Springs, Colorado -- Hot springs town in Colorado
Wikipedia - Mineral industry of Africa -- Overview about the mineral industry of Africa
Wikipedia - Mineral (nutrient) -- Chemical element required as an essential nutrient by organisms to perform functions necessary for life
Wikipedia - Mineralocorticoid
Wikipedia - Mineralogical Society of America
Wikipedia - Mineralogist
Wikipedia - Mineralogy -- Scientific study of minerals and mineralised artifacts
Wikipedia - Mineraloid -- A non-crystalline mineral-like substance
Wikipedia - Mineral oil -- Liquid mixture of higher alkanes from a mineral source, particularly a distillate of petroleum
Wikipedia - Mineral painting -- technique of fresco preparation and painting
Wikipedia - Mineral physics -- The science of materials that compose the interior of planets
Wikipedia - Mineral resource classification
Wikipedia - Mineral Revolution
Wikipedia - Mineral rights -- Property rights to exploit an area for the minerals
Wikipedia - Minerals Council South Africa -- South African mining-industry employer organisation
Wikipedia - Minerals Income Investment Fund -- Ghanaian investment fund
Wikipedia - Minerals Management Service
Wikipedia - Mineral spa
Wikipedia - Minerals
Wikipedia - Minerals Yearbook -- Annual publication from the United States Geological Survey
Wikipedia - Mineral -- Element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline, formed as a result of geological processes
Wikipedia - Mineral wool -- Fiber made from spun molten minerals
Wikipedia - Mining engineering -- Engineering discipline that involves the practice, the theory, the science, the technology, and applicatIon of extracting and processing minerals from a naturally occurring environment
Wikipedia - Mining -- The extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth
Wikipedia - Ministry of Power, Energy and Mineral Resources -- Government ministry of Bangladesh
Wikipedia - Miracle Mineral Supplement -- Toxic patent medicine illegally marketed as a cure for various illnesses
Wikipedia - Mohs' scale of mineral hardness
Wikipedia - Mohs scale of mineral hardness -- Qualitative ordinal scale characterizing scratch resistance of various minerals
Wikipedia - Moissanite -- Silicon carbide mineral
Wikipedia - Montmorillonite -- Member of the smectite group of swelling 2:1 clay mineral
Wikipedia - Multiple epiphyseal dysplasia -- An osteochondrodysplasia that has material basis in defective cartilage mineralization into bone which results in irregular ossification centers of the located in hip or located in knee. The disease has symptom fatigue, has symptom joint pain.
Wikipedia - Nacrite -- Phyllosilicate mineral: group of kaolinite
Wikipedia - National Mineral Development Corporation -- Indian public sector mineral mining company
Wikipedia - Native aluminium -- Mineral (as opposed to the chemical element)
Wikipedia - Native copper -- Mineral (as opposed to the chemical element)
Wikipedia - Nepheline -- A silica-undersaturated aluminosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Neptunism -- Obsolete theory that rocks formed from the crystallisation of minerals in the early EarthM-bM-^@M-^Ys oceans, through processes such as great floods
Wikipedia - Nickel-Strunz classification -- Scheme for categorizing minerals
Wikipedia - Niedermayrite -- Sulfate mineral
Wikipedia - Niter -- Mineral form of potassium nitrate
Wikipedia - Nitric acid -- Highly corrosive mineral acid
Wikipedia - Nodule (geology) -- Small mass of a mineral with a contrasting composition to the enclosing sediment or rock
Wikipedia - Nontronite -- Dioctahedral (Fe<sup>3+</sup>) smectite, phyllosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Normative mineralogy -- Calculation of the composition of a rock
Wikipedia - Onyx -- Banded variety of the mineral chalcedony
Wikipedia - Optically stimulated luminescence -- Method of measuring radiation doses, often used in mineral dating
Wikipedia - Optical mineralogy -- The optical properties of rocks and minerals
Wikipedia - Ore genesis -- How the various types of mineral deposits form within the Earth's crust.
Wikipedia - Ore -- Rock with valuable metals, minerals and elements
Wikipedia - Orthoclase -- Tectosilicate mineral found in igneous rock
Wikipedia - Osukuru Industrial Complex -- Industry processing phosphate, iron and rare minerals in Uganda
Wikipedia - Paired metamorphic belts -- Sets of juxtaposed linear rock units that display contrasting metamorphic mineral assemblages
Wikipedia - Palygorskite -- A magnesium aluminium phyllosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Pargasite -- Amphibole, double chain inosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Parisite-(La) -- Carbonate-fluoride mineral
Wikipedia - Paul Hautefeuille -- French mineralogist and chemist
Wikipedia - Peak minerals -- Point in time of largest mineral production
Wikipedia - Pebble Mine -- Undeveloped copper-gold-molybdenum mineral deposit in Alaska, United States
Wikipedia - Pennine Spring -- mineral water brand
Wikipedia - Peridot -- Green gem-quality mineral
Wikipedia - Perovskite -- Oxide mineral
Wikipedia - Perrier -- Mineral water brand
Wikipedia - Petalite -- Silicate mineral, used in ceramic glazing
Wikipedia - Petrifaction -- The process by which organic material becomes a fossil through the replacement of the original material and the filling of the original pore spaces with mineral
Wikipedia - Phosphate mineral -- Nickel-Strunz 9 ed mineral class number 8 (isolated tetrahedral units, mainly)
Wikipedia - Picrite basalt -- Variety of high-magnesium basalt that is very rich in the mineral olivine
Wikipedia - Pilbara Minerals -- Australian lithium mining company
Wikipedia - Pimelite -- Nickel-rich smectite deprecated as mineral species in 2006
Wikipedia - Pluto Water -- A mineral water laxitive
Wikipedia - Polideportivo Carlos Martinez Balmori -- Arena in Mineral de la Reforma, Mexico
Wikipedia - Portal:Minerals
Wikipedia - Potassium in biology -- Description of the element's function as an essential mineral micronutrient
Wikipedia - Prasiolite -- Mineral, quartz variety
Wikipedia - Prenatal vitamins -- Vitamin and mineral supplements
Wikipedia - Pressure solution -- Rock deformation mechanism involving minerals dissolution under mechanical stress
Wikipedia - Princes Gate Spring Water -- Mineral water brand
Wikipedia - Prospecting -- The physical search for minerals
Wikipedia - Pyrochlore -- Niobium mineral of A2B2O7 general formula
Wikipedia - Pyrophyllite -- Aluminium silicate hydroxide phyllosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Pyroxene -- A group of inosilicate minerals
Wikipedia - Quartz -- Mineral made of silicon and oxygen.
Wikipedia - Realgar -- Sulfide mineral
Wikipedia - Remineralisation -- breakdown of organic matter to simple chemicals by living organisms
Wikipedia - Rhassoul -- Mineral clay-based cosmetic
Wikipedia - Rhizolith -- Root systems encased in mineral matter
Wikipedia - Riebeckite -- A sodium-rich member of the amphibole group of silicate minerals
Wikipedia - Robert Allan (mineralogist) -- British geologist
Wikipedia - Robert B. Ferguson Museum of Mineralogy -- Mineral Museum in Fort Garry (Winnipeg), Manitoba
Wikipedia - Robertsite -- Phosphate mineral
Wikipedia - Rock (geology) -- Naturally occurring mineral aggregate
Wikipedia - Rosiwal scale -- Hardness scale in mineralogy
Wikipedia - Royal Mineral Water Hospital
Wikipedia - Rubidium-strontium dating -- Radiometric dating technique for rocks and minerals based on the quantities of specific isotopes of rubidium (M-bM-^AM-8M-bM-^AM-7Rb) and strontium (M-bM-^AM-8M-bM-^AM-7Sr, M-bM-^AM-8M-bM-^AM-6Sr)
Wikipedia - Ruby -- Variety of corundum, mineral, gemstone
Wikipedia - Salt pan (geology) -- Flat expanse of ground covered with salt and other minerals
Wikipedia - Salt -- mineral used as ingredient, composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl)
Wikipedia - Sand -- Granular material composed of finely divided rock and mineral particles
Wikipedia - Saponite -- Trioctahedral (Mg<sup>2+</sup>, Fe<sup>2+</sup>) calcium smectite, phyllosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Sauconite -- Trioctahedral (Zn2+) smectite, phyllosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Schreibersite -- Iron nickel phosphide mineral usually found in meteorites
Wikipedia - Seafloor massive sulfide deposits -- Mineral deposits from seafloor hydrothermal vents
Wikipedia - Segnitite -- Common iron oxide mineral
Wikipedia - Selenite (mineral) -- Mineral variety of gypsum
Wikipedia - Sepiolite -- Soft and porous white magnesium silicate clay mineral
Wikipedia - Shungite -- Carbon rich mineraloid
Wikipedia - Silicate minerals
Wikipedia - Silicate mineral
Wikipedia - Silicate perovskite -- Important minerals in the Earth's lower mantle
Wikipedia - Sillimanite -- Nesosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - SIMEC Group -- British international energy and mineral resources group; part of GFG Alliance
Wikipedia - Skaergaardite -- Mineral
Wikipedia - Smaltite -- Type of mineral skutterudite
Wikipedia - Soil chemistry -- Discipline embracing all chemical and mineralogical compounds and reactions occurring in soils and soil-forming processes
Wikipedia - Soil -- mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life
Wikipedia - Spa town -- Specialized resort town situated around a mineral spa
Wikipedia - Spa -- Location where mineral-rich spring water is used to give medicinal baths
Wikipedia - Speleothem -- A structure formed in a cave by the deposition of minerals from water
Wikipedia - Spherocobaltite -- Carbonate mineral
Wikipedia - Spodumene -- Pyroxene, single chain inosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Stalagmite -- Elongate mineral formation found on a cave floor
Wikipedia - Stephan Riess -- American geochemist, mineralogist and geo-hydrologist
Wikipedia - Stercorite -- Phosphate mineral
Wikipedia - Streak (mineralogy)
Wikipedia - Striation (geology) -- A groove, created by a geological process, on the surface of a rock or a mineral
Wikipedia - Struvite -- Phosphate mineral
Wikipedia - Sudetenquell -- Nazi-run mineral water producer
Wikipedia - Taconite -- An iron-bearing sedimentary rock, in which the iron minerals are interlayered with quartz, chert, or carbonate
Wikipedia - Talc -- A hydrated magnesium phyllosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Tanzanite -- Blue to purple variety of the mineral zoisite
Wikipedia - Thaumasite -- Unusual calcium silicate mineral with carbonate, sulfate and hexacoordinated hydroxysilicate anions. Responsible of a harmful concrete sulfate attack
Wikipedia - Thin section -- Laboratory preparation of a rock, mineral, soil, pottery, bones, or metal for use with a petrographic microscope
Wikipedia - Tinnunculite -- Organic mineral
Wikipedia - Titanite -- Nesosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Tobermorite -- Inosilicate alteration mineral in metamorphosed limestone and in skarn
Wikipedia - Tonstein -- A hard, compact sedimentary rock that is composed mainly of kaolinite or, less commonly, other clay minerals
Wikipedia - Topaz -- Silicate mineral
Wikipedia - Tourmaline -- Cyclosilicate mineral group
Wikipedia - Travertine -- A form of limestone deposited by mineral springs
Wikipedia - Tremolite -- Amphibole, double chain inosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Tridymite -- Silica mineral, polymorph of quartz
Wikipedia - Troilite -- Rare iron sulfide mineral: FeS
Wikipedia - Tschermakite -- Amphibole, double chain inosilicate mineral
Wikipedia - Tufa -- Porous limestone rock formed when carbonate minerals precipitate out of ambient temperature water
Wikipedia - Turam method -- Geophysical electro-magnetic method used for mineral exploration
Wikipedia - Turquoise Hill Resources -- Canadian mineral exploration and development company
Wikipedia - Turquoise -- Opaque, blue-to-green mineral: hydrous phosphate of copper and aluminium
Wikipedia - Uakitite -- Mineral found in a single meteorite
Wikipedia - Umohoite -- Uranyl oxide mineral
Wikipedia - Uraninite -- Uranium-rich oxide mineral
Wikipedia - Ursula Marvin -- American geologist, mineralogist and historian of science
Wikipedia - Vermiculite -- A hydrous phyllosilicate mineral which expands significantly when heated
Wikipedia - Vladimir Vernadsky -- Ukrainian and Soviet mineralogist and geochemist, one of the founders of geochemistry, biogeochemistry, and of radiogeology
Wikipedia - Walter Campbell Smith -- British mineralogist and petrologist
Wikipedia - Warm Mineral Springs
Wikipedia - Wavellite -- Aluminium phosphate basic hydrate mineral
Wikipedia - Weathering -- Breaking down of rocks, soils and minerals as well as artificial materials through contact with the Earth's atmosphere, water, and biota
Wikipedia - Well O'Spa -- Mineral Well
Wikipedia - William Gregor -- English clergyman and mineralogist
Wikipedia - William Hallowes Miller -- Welsh mineralogist and crystallographer
Wikipedia - William Lewis (mineralogist)
Wikipedia - Xocolatlite -- Hydrous Te(VI) oxysalt mineral
Wikipedia - Zeolite -- Microporous, aluminosilicate minerals commonly used as commercial adsorbents and catalysts
Wikipedia - Zircon -- Zirconium silicate, a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates
Vladimir Vernadsky ::: Born: March 12, 1863; Died: January 6, 1945; Occupation: Mineralogist;
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Does Android Jones Dream of Electro-Mineralist Sheep?
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https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Category:Minerals
Vitaminix (2013 - 2016) - Vitaminix is an animated series introduces that kids to the interesting world of food and the benefits of healthy eating. Each episode features one animal associated with the food, vitamin or mineral in question in an entertaining and dynamic way to create a fun learning experience!
The Dogs of War (1981) - Jamie Shannon is a soldier of fortune, a mercenary who will stage a coup or a revolution for the right price. He is hired by British mining interest to scout out Zangora, a small African country with rich mineral deposits but an uncooperative government. Arrested soon after his arrival, Shannon is i...
Water(1985) - A British diplomat to a West Indian island nation finds his idyllic existence thrown into chaos when a large American drilling company finds a huge source of natural mineral water there.
Oblivion 2: Backlash(1996) - In the alien-western world of Oblivion, a suave, yet lethal bounty hunter named Sweeney arrives to arrest the seductive outlaw Lash on multiple charges, including murder. Lash, who just "inherited" a mine of Derconium (the most valuable mineral in the universe) from Crowley in a game of cards, meets...
https://apicultura.fandom.com/wiki/Mineral
https://civilization.fandom.com/wiki/Minerals_(CivBE)
https://dnd4.fandom.com/wiki/Mineral_Resilience
https://elderscrolls.fandom.com/wiki/Transmute_Mineral_Ore
https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/"MHMU_Treatise_on_Minerals"
https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/Mineral_Vein
https://ffxiclopedia.fandom.com/wiki/"Varicose_Mineral_Veins"
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Antimineral_shell
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Favored_mineral
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mineralize_warrior
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mineral_mephit
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mineral_quasi-elemental
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Mineral_warrior
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Quasielemental_Plane_of_Mineral
https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Quasi-Elemental_Plane_of_Minerals
https://geology.fandom.com/wiki/Mineraloid
https://harvestmoon.fandom.com/wiki/Harvest_Moon:_Friends_of_Mineral_Town
https://harvestmoon.fandom.com/wiki/Harvest_Moon:_More_Friends_of_Mineral_Town
https://harvestmoon.fandom.com/wiki/Story_of_Seasons:_Friends_of_Mineral_Town
https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/Ades_(mineral_water)
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https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/Bare_Minerals
https://logos.fandom.com/wiki/Club_(mineral_water)
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Areal_bone_mineral_density
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Bone_mineral_content
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Diamagnetic_mineral
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Mineral
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Mineralogist
https://memory-beta.fandom.com/wiki/Arbiter_of_the_Vulcan_Mineral_Syndicate
https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Harvest_Moon:_Friends_of_Mineral_Town
https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Harvest_Moon:_More_Friends_of_Mineral_Town
https://nintendo.fandom.com/wiki/Story_of_Seasons:_Friends_of_Mineral_Town
https://paleontology.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_minerals
https://paleontology.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_minerals_A-B_(complete)
https://paleontology.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_minerals_C-E_(complete)
https://paleontology.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_minerals_F-J_(complete)
https://paleontology.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_minerals_K-M_(complete)
https://paleontology.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_minerals_N-R_(complete)
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Mineral
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Find_Minerals
https://wowwiki-archive.fandom.com/wiki/Mineral
Housekishou Richard-shi no Nazo Kantei -- -- Shuka -- 12 eps -- Novel -- Drama Mystery Slice of Life -- Housekishou Richard-shi no Nazo Kantei Housekishou Richard-shi no Nazo Kantei -- Possessing a deep knowledge of mineralogy, Richard Ranashinha de Vulpian is a young and handsome British jewelry appraiser who owns a small shop in Japan. One fateful night, Seigi Nakata, a righteous college student, saves him from drunks who were harassing him due to his good looks. Upon learning of Richard's identity, Seigi hires him to appraise a pink sapphire ring that was left behind by his deceased grandmother. -- -- Before long, Seigi becomes a trusted part-timer at Richard's shop. Together, the duo solve various jewel-related requests from diverse clients of different backgrounds. Step by step, they unravel the hidden motives and feelings that lie within the gems in order to understand and empathize with the little stories behind each piece of jewelry. -- -- 44,223 7.16
Lupin III vs. Detective Conan -- -- TMS Entertainment -- 1 ep -- - -- Action Adventure Comedy Mystery Shounen -- Lupin III vs. Detective Conan Lupin III vs. Detective Conan -- In a country called Vesparand, a new mineral with super stealth properties has been discovered which attracts Lupin's attention. At the same time the untimely deaths of Queen Sakura and her son, Prince Gill, leave Princess Mira next in succession to the throne. During a trip to Japan, Princess Mira finds her double in Ran and takes the opportunity to trade places, which ends with Ran being spirited away to Vesparand with Conan, Zenigata, Kogoro Mouri, Lupin and Fujiko in tow. There they meet a waiting Jigen and solve the mystery of the deaths of the Queen and Prince. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- Discotek Media -- Special - Mar 27, 2009 -- 27,826 7.79
Sol Bianca -- -- AIC -- 2 eps -- Original -- Action Sci-Fi Adventure Space -- Sol Bianca Sol Bianca -- Five female pirates pilot the Sol Bianca, a starship with a higher level of technology than any other known. With it, they seek out riches, such as the Gnosis, an legendary item of power, and pasha, the most valuable mineral in the galaxy. Along the way, they must consider a stowaway's quest to save the one he loves, and seek revenge against those that have wronged them. -- -- (Source: ANN) -- -- Licensor: -- ADV Films -- OVA - Mar 21, 1990 -- 4,975 6.34
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Media_from_Minerals
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https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Featured_pictures/Objects/Rocks_and_Minerals
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Acqua Minerale San Benedetto
Adastra Minerals
A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum
Agrominerals
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American Mineralogist
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Animal, Vegetable, Mineral?
Animal-Vegetable-Mineral Man
An Introduction to the Rock-Forming Minerals
Antimineralocorticoid
Apparent mineralocorticoid excess syndrome
Argillaceous mineral
Arizona breccia pipe uranium mineralization
Armand Lvy (mineralogist)
Arsenate mineral
Arsenite mineral
Asia Resource Minerals
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Aura Minerals
Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society
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Biomineralization
Blue John (mineral)
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Bone mineral density quantitative trait locus 8
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Carbonate mineral
Carbon Mineral Challenge
Celestine (mineral)
Central Mineral Belt, Labrador
Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy
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Chronic kidney disease-mineral and bone disorder
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Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology
Convention on the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resource Activities
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Damavand Mineral Water Co.
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Department of Mineral Resources and Energy
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Dolomite (mineral)
DSF Refractories & Minerals Ltd
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Equinox Minerals
Extinction (optical mineralogy)
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Fumarole mineral
Gallery of Mineralogy and Geology
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Harvard Mineralogical Museum
Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
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Kermes mineral
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Lac Minerals Ltd v International Corona Resources Ltd
List of minerals
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Physics and Chemistry of Minerals
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Reviews in Mineralogy and Geochemistry
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Rocky Branch (Mineral Fork tributary)
Russian Mineralogical Society
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Selenide minerals
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Siberian Research Institute of Geology, Geophysics and Mineral Resources
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Silicate mineral paint
Simpson Branch (Mineral Fork tributary)
Sirius Minerals
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St. Joe Minerals
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Sulfarsenide mineral
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Sulfosalt mineral
Superior multimineral process
Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort
Talison Minerals
Tamil Nadu Minerals Limited
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The Clay Minerals Society
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Tipperary Natural Mineral Water
Tucson Gem & Mineral Show
Type specimen (mineralogy)
Union Minerals and Alloys Corporation
Voids in mineral aggregate
Volvic (mineral water)
Walker House (Mineral Point, Wisconsin)
Warm Mineral Springs, Florida
Western Australia Atlas of mineral deposits and petroleum fields
West Mineral, Kansas
William Thomson (mineralogist)
Wolf Minerals
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