Thoughts fitting together into a system are irreverent.
They gradually exclude the unsaid and then leave it behind,
until it dies of thirst.
E.C
Rhythm is originally the rhythm of the feet.
Every human being walks,
and, since he walks on two legs with which
he strikes the ground in turn and since
he only moves if he continues to do this,
whether intentionally or not,
a rhythmic sound ensues.
The two feet never strike the ground
with exactly the same force.
The difference between
them can be larger or smaller according
to individual constitution or mood.
It is also possible to walk faster or slower,
to run,
to stand still suddenly,
or to jump.
Man has always listened to the footsteps of other men;
he certainly paid more attention
to them than to his own.
Animals too have their familiar gait;
their rhythms are often richer and more audible than those of men;
hoofed animals flee in herds,
like regiments of drummers.
The knowledge of the animals by which he was surrounded,
which threatened him and which he hunted,
was man’s oldest knowledge.
He learnt to know animals by the rhythm of their tracks;
it was a kind of
rhythmic notation imprinted
on the soft ground and,
as he read it,
he connected it with the sound of its formation.
Elias Canetti
