Likewise, a well may indicate a source of information or that which accumulates. Thus as Pope’s often cited observation expresses it, “Hope springs eternal in the human breast.” 2 A source of knowledge can be likened to a fountain. Other idioms include the metaphor of springs as a source of further information or expectations. An event that reflects a center of man’s common activity or an idea/thought that reflects current opinion or thinking is said to be “mainstream.” One often can see “streamers” of ribbon or paper set-up as banners heralding some unusual event or the arrival of an important person. In literature, a “stream of consciousness” refers to the recalling of the thoughts or perceptions of a particular character. One can experience a “stream” of light or shed a “stream” of tears. If no experience is precisely the same, it is because a person never “steps into the same river.” A “stream” of something can refer to a crown of people passing or to heavy traffic. If you are “sold down the river” you are betrayed but if one has been “up the river” he has been confined to a penitentiary. A simplified explanation of the make-up or workings of a complicated device or the basic idea of a difficult problem may also be expressed by the same idiom. For example, something that stimulates the appetite is said to “make one’s mouth water.” A past event is called “water under the bridge.” Something that is “watered down” may be less potent or effective. Man’s common experience with water in its various sources often appears in idiomatic expressions. Ryken defines an archetype as “an image, plot, motif, or character type that recurs throughout literature and is part of a reader’s total literary experience. The need for and uses of water, therefore, appear so prevalently in the literature of the ancients that water serves as an archetype. Accordingly, they commonly lived along river banks and other bodies of water or dug wells in order to provide a supply of available water for drinking and cleansing as well as for irrigation purposes so as to ensure the fertility of the land. This was particularly felt by the people of the ancient Near East, where water was often in scarce supply. Covering about 70% of its surface, water is at once earth’s most abundant natural resource and a basic necessity for human life.
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