The Spider
What shall I compare it to, this fantastic thing I call my Mind? To a waste-paper basket, to a sieve choked with sediment, or to a barrel full of floating froth and refuse?
No, what it is really most like is a spider's web, insecurely hung on leaves and twigs, quivering in every wind, and sprinkled with dewdrops and dead flies. And at its centre, pondering forever the Problem of Existence, sits motionless the spider-like and uncanny Soul.
BOOK II
"Thou, Trivia, goddess, aid my song: Through spacious streets conduct thy bard along."
Gay's Trivia, or New Art of Walking Streets of London.