WIND-THING

The summer wind came blowin' in
From across the sea
It lingered there to touch your hair
And walk with me

All summer long we sang a song
And then we strolled that golden sand
Two sweethearts and the summer wind

—Johnny Mercer & Henry Mayer & Hans Bradtke

The wind blows where it wants,
and you hear the sound of it,
but you cannot tell where it is coming from,
nor where it is going to...

—John 3:08

For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone;
and the place thereof shall know it no more.

—Psalms 78:39

Thou shalt arrest the violence of the unwearied winds that arise and sweep the earth, laying waste the cornfields with their blasts; and again, if thou so will, thou shalt call back winds in requital.

—Empedocles :: On Nature

Winds are generated when air has been condensed and is driven along. As it collects together and is further thickened, clouds are generated; and in the same way it changes into water. Hail occurs when the water falling from the clouds solidifies, and snow when these same things solidify in a more watery form. Lighting occurs when the clouds are parted by the force of the winds; for when they part a bright and fiery flash occurs. Rainbows are produced when the sun's rays fall on compacted air; earthquakes when the earth is considerably altered by heating and cooling.

—Hippolytus :: Refutation of All Heresies

Anaximenes the Milesian asserted air is the principle of the things which exist; for everything comes into being from air and is resolved again into it. For example, OUR SOULS, he says, BEING AIR, HOLD US TOGETHER, AND BREATH AND AIR ENCOMPASS THE WHOLE WORLD.

—Plutarch :: Opinions of the Philosophers on Nature

Anaximenes opines that there is a single, moving, limitless principle of all existing things, namely air. For he says this: “Air is close to the incorporeal; and because we come into being by the outflowing of air, it is necessary for it to be both limitless and rich because it never gives out.”

—Olympiodorus :: On the Divine and Sacred Art of the Philosopher's Stone