Earth, Wind And Fire

"The struggle against cosmic terror in all its forms and manifestations did not rely on abstract hope or on the eternal spirit, but on the material principle in man himself. Man assimilated the cosmic elements, earth, water, air, and fire; he discovered them and became vividly conscious of them in his own body. He became aware of the cosmos within himself."

-Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World (tr. H. Iswolsky)