Though I have often thought, in retrospect, that the memory became a memory not because there was anything special about the fireplace (though I’m sure it was a nice example of one, or anyway a functional example of one) but because of the shock of the recognition that I experienced on looking at it; and which shock I now understand (or suppose I understand, since I’m imposing a complex interpretation onto an event I experienced as a child) as originating in the realization that all objects or material phenomena (in this case a fireplace) not only possessed particularity, as unique instances, but also something like generality, to the extent that they were illustrative of the form in which they participated.