He arranged them in a circle that begins the ends at the top. Like Burnett's drawing, they retell the past on the right. On the left they prophesy a future that will replay past events in reverse. With eerie clarity, James Hampton saw what scientists had struggled to see ever since Burnett. He saw that events cycle in time.
Day follows night.
Nature displays symmetry. But he also saw that time is directional and irreversible. It takes us from one place to another. If science tells of reproducible, or cyclic, events, it also recites our history. It tells the story of our trek through time.