Fireplaces • house & garden 

The fire confined to the fireplace was no doubt for man, the first object of reverie... 

One can hardly conceive of a philosophy of repose that would not include a reverie before a flaming fire...

Fire is,  for man who is contemplating it,  an  example of sudden change. Less monotonous and less abstract than flowing water, even more quick to grow and change than the young bird we watch  every day in its nest in the bushes, fire suggests the desire to change, to speed up the passage of time, to bring all life to its conclusion, to its  hereafter. In these circumstances the reverie becomes truly fascinating...it magnifies human destiny, it links the small to the great, the hearth to the volcano, the life of the log to the life of the world... The log’s destruction is more than a change, it is a renewal. Love death and fire are united in the same moment...To lose everything in order to gain everything. The lesson taught by fire is clear: after having gained all through skill, through love, through violence, you must give up everything.