BERYL

Columns and spires are imaginary. Even their absence is ghostly. They do not mark the places where matter gathers; but neither do they mark those from which all absence would have been withdrawn by virtue of an inconceivable refusal. The eyes and what behind the eyes remembers, is moved, gathers and unknowingly constructs and conjectures, yet they have the security of perceiving the frayed voids that outline the illusion of a sparkling downpour in the colourless depths.

(R. CAILLOIS, Stones, p. 82-83)