Some Manifolds

"...the hum of insects, like tiniest bells on the garment of Silence..."

-George Eliot, from The Mill On The Floss

"...the great race of human beings who regard life as a series of piracies of all powers..."

-Christina Stead, from The Man Who Loved Children

"...a kind of Ten Commandments in vegetable-dye color printing..."

-Marianne Moore on Key West, from a letter to Elizabeth Bishop