e spring underneath a
cocoanut-palm. And here too was the dove to which the heavy-hearted
maiden at the waning of summer, in the orchard among the ripening
peaches, confides passionate messages that it may bear them along in
its flight into the unknown.

And there were the doves of old parsonages shrouded in roses, and
those which Jocelyn with his incense-fragrant hand fed as he dreamed
of Laurence. And there was the dove which is given to the dying little
girl, and that which in certain regions is placed upon the burning
brow of the sick, and the blinded dove whose voice is so filled
with pain that it lures the flight of its passing sisters toward
the huntsman's ambush, and the dove, the gentlest of all, who brings
comfort to the forgotten old poet in his garret.

* * * * *

The third paradise was that of the sheep.

It lay in the heart of an emerald valley watered by streams, and
beneath their sun-bathed crystal the grass was of a marvelous green.
And nearby was a lake, iridescent like mother-of-pearl and the
feathers of a peacock; it was azure and glistened like mica, and
seemed to be the breast of humming-birds and the wing of butterflies.
Here after they had licked the pure white salt from the golden-grained
granite, the sheep dreamed their long dream, and their tufts of thick
wool overlapped like the leaves of great branches covered with snow.

This landscape was so pure and of such dreamlike clarity that it had
whitened the eye-lashes of the lambs, and had entered into their eyes
of gold. And the atmosphere was so transparent that it seemed one
could see in the depth of the water clearly revealed the outlines of
the yellow-striped summits of limestone. Flowers of frost, of sky, and
of blood were woven into the carpets of the forests of beech and fir.
After having passed over them the breeze went forth again even more
softly, more fragrant, more ice-like in its purity.

Like a blue flood the marvelous cone-like trees, interwoven with
silvery lichens, stretched upward. Waterfalls as if suspended from
the rocky crags, scattered in a smoke-like spray. And suddenly the
heavenly flocks sent forth their bleating toward God, and the ecstatic
bells wept for the shadow of the ferns. And the dark water of the
grottoes broke in the light.

Lying amid the wild laurel the lamb of the Gospel became visible
again. Its paw rested under its nose, and was still bleeding. The
roads over which