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Definitions, and Comment:
Being a Description of the World
By Eli Siegel

70. Direction

Direction is motion thought of as going towards something, with that thing first had in mind.

Motion can be thought of as indeterminate, aimless, of chance. Direction implies the attitude of a self; but it should be seen that a self implies existence as making for selves.

A point is like the world, in so far as it is both including thing and thing included. The point is the world thought of as finite and infinite in terms of the small, or infinitely excluded.

A point is center and circumference at once. It is the world seen at its smallest, as center and circumference at once. A point is existent and non-existent.

A point as center is solid matter; as circumference it is form, not solid. Area is center and circumference together, with them both excluded.

When, therefore, in a point, center is thought of as different from circumference, some area is implied. There is a relation of point to circumference. The area is space.

As soon as area is along with point and circumference, the point, thought of as going out, is now a circle, and the circumference is also a circle.

The repetitions of itself by the point go towards the circumference. The repetition of a point is a line. Within the relation of point, area, and circle, we have two general directions: towards the point, or within; towards the circle, or without.

The point thought of as being gone towards by the addition of the repetition of itself, or other points, then makes for the direction of a line. The direction is towards the center; it is within; it is towards here. Going out from the center, it is without, towards there. Here and there are two fundamental directions, both implying a previous place or point thought of.

Out of the point, as circle, come all directions. The compass, which is a circle, has all directions.

Once we have within and without and the point as circle, we also have a second here, which is below, and a second there, which is above. Above can be here, as in “here above.” Below can be there, as in “there below.” However, in the self, below means here, and above means there.

In and out are also directions. Left and right can also be seen in the lines possible in a circle from center to circumference and circumference to center.

With the circle repeated the opposite of the way it is seen, it becomes a sphere. We then have this way and that way, hither and thither.

Direction comes originally from the world seen as from circumference to center or center to circumference; for the world as infinite, included and including, is as center and area and circumference, at once.

© 1945 by Eli Siegel, founder of Aesthetic Realism
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