This work by R.H. Ives Gammell refers to a symbolic concept preceding the creation of man as suggested by Shakespeare's Sonnet 107: “. . . the prophetic soul of the wide world, dreaming on things to come.” It may also draw inspiration from a line written by Sir Thomas Browne: “In the chaos of preordination, and night of our forebeings,” as well as Francis Thompson’s Pascal ode, “From the Night of Forebeing.”