Literary notes about elements (AI summary)
In literature, the word "elements" serves a range of purposes from denoting the fundamental building blocks of matter and thought to representing abstract qualities and components of human experience. For example, in psychoanalysis, Freud uses "elements" to refer to the constituent parts of dreams, emphasizing their complex interplay in the subconscious ([1], [2]), while in Freemasonry and religious texts, the term connotes parts that, when combined, symbolize deeper spiritual or communal truths ([3], [4], [5]). In scientific and philosophical contexts, such as in works on geology and sociology, "elements" is employed to designate basic units—whether of the physical world or societal constructs—that, when analyzed, reveal the structure and dynamics of larger systems ([6], [7], [8]). Moreover, the word is occasionally used in its more literal sense to evoke the natural forces or weather conditions that impact human lives, as seen in the evocative imagery of Whitman and Jules Verne ([9], [10]).
- But do not forget that in our association technique we never discover constant substitutes for the dream elements.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Furthermore, a dream is not an isolated error, but consists of many elements.
— from A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud - Therefore the system continued thenceforward, for ages, to present the commingled elements of operative and speculative Masonry.
— from The symbolism of Freemasonry : by Albert Gallatin Mackey - Whatever connection there may be between these two elements of the religious life, they are still quite different.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - In Freemasonry, these elements of consecration are corn , wine , and oil ,—which see.
— from The symbolism of Freemasonry : by Albert Gallatin Mackey - The Student's Elements of Geology The Student’s Elements of Geology [ 353 ] Chapter XX JURASSIC GROUP— continued —LIAS.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - Abandoning the conception of cause, mathematics seeks law, that is, the property common to all unknown, infinitely small, elements.
— from War and Peace by graf Leo Tolstoy - It alone enables us to resolve an institution into its constituent elements, for it shows them to us as they are born in time, one after another.
— from The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life by Émile Durkheim - Indeed, the heavens, the elements, all the meteorological influences, have run riot for weeks past.
— from Complete Prose Works by Walt Whitman - It was still what sailors call “a close-reefed topsail breeze,” but the commotion in the elements had none the less considerably diminished.
— from The Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
