s by the bolder winds, blush under
the fiery glances of the sun, and melt into the sky upon his nearer
approach. Ah! these clouds and vapors had more than human tenderness,
for had they not seen them throng around the ghastly disc of the
star-deserted moon, weaving their light webs into flowing veils to
shadow the majestic sorrow written upon her melancholy but lovely face,
shielding the mystic pallor of the virgin brow from the desecrating gaze
of the profane?
The three brothers were happy upon earth, for they looked into the heart
of their fellow mortals, and felt the genial feeling beating there; and
so luxuriantly twined its vivid green around, that the evil core was
hidden from their charmed eyes, and they ceased not to bless the Father
for a gift so divine as Human Love! They could not weep and pray the
long night through, as did the saintly Anselm, for their eyes were
fastened upon the wildering lustre of the thronging stars as they wove
their magic rings through the dim abysses of distant space, yet the
incense of constant praise rose from their happy souls to the
Beauty-giving Father.
They struggled to awake the sleeping powers of men to a perception of
the glories of creation; to lead them 'through nature up to nature's
God.' The Artist-Brothers were closely united in feeling, striving
through different mediums to refine the soul of man.
For the spirit of Beauty always awakens the spirit of Love, sent by God
to elevate and consecrate the heart of man!
* * * * *
Of a more subtle genius and more daring spirit than Zophiel or Jemschid,
Angelo boldly launched into the bewildering chaos of the realm of
sound. As yet the laws of the Acoustic Prism were unknown; the
seven-ranged ladder was all unformed, and without its aid it seemed
impossible to scale the ever-renewing heights, to sound the ever-growing
depths of this enchanted kingdom. But Angelo was a bold adventurer.
Haunted by the heaven sounds, vague memories of his antenatal existence,
although he had entirely lost the _meaning_ of their flow, as one may
recall snatches of the melody of a song when he cannot remember one of
its words--he commenced his subtle task. He resolved the Acoustic Prism;
he built the seven-runged ladder; he charmed the wandering Tones, and
bound them in the holy laws of Rhythm. Divining the hidden secrets of
their affiliations, relations, loves, and hates, he wrought them into
gorgeous webs of
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