CYCLE ONE

1. Whereas the Irish are socially extrovert and culturally introvert, the British - and in particular the English - are socially introvert and culturally extrovert.

2. Hard to escape the impression that the expression 'go to hell' is all too applicable to what one does when one turns on the television.

3. Except for stanza-divisible poetry and aphoristic philosophy, all other literary genres - including free verse and essays - are lower class, i.e. phenomenal.

4. Drama and fiction stand in between poetry and philosophy like water and vegetation (earth) in between fire and air.

5. In such fashion they are akin to strength and knowledge in between beauty and truth.

6. One can divide the day, which, as everyone will know, is composed of twenty-four hours, into four distinct periods, corresponding to the elements, of six hours, viz. from midnight till six o'clock, the fiery period of beauty; from six o'clock till noon, the watery period of strength; from noon till six o'clock in the evening, the vegetative period of knowledge; and from six o'clock till midnight, the airy period of truth.

7. Since I conceive of fire and water as corresponding, on account of their objectivity, to the female side of life, and of vegetation and air, their subjective counterparts, as corresponding to its male side, it behoves me to consider the first half of the day, viz. from midnight till noon as in some sense female, and the second half of the day, viz. from noon till midnight, as in some sense male, since it is then that not beauty and strength but knowledge and truth are more in their element, or so it seems to me.