At the east and the
west are other altars, and other beams of light stab the sacred
twilight to the heart. In every direction, 'white, mystic, wonderful',
open out the ray-like courts, each pierced through by a single
arrow of light that serves to illumine its lofty silence and
dimly to reveal the monuments of the dead. {Endnote 15}
Overcome at so awe-inspiring a sight, the vast loveliness of
which thrills the nerves like a glance from beauty's eyes, you
turn to the central golden altar, in the midst of which, though
you cannot see it now, there burns a pale but steady flame crowned
with curls of faint blue smoke. It is of marble overlaid with
pure gold, in shape round like the sun, four feet in height,
and thirty-six in circumference. Here also, hinged to the foundations
of the altar, are twelve petals of beaten gold. All night and,
except at one hour, all day also, these petals are closed over
the altar itself exactly as the petals of a water-lily close
over the yellow crown in stormy weather; but when the sun at
midday pierces through the funnel in the dome and lights upon
the golden flower, the petals open and reveal the hidden mystery,
only to close again when the ray has passed.
Nor is this all. Standing in semicircles at equal distances
from each other on the north and south of the sacred place are
ten golden angels, or female winged forms, exquisitely shaped
and draped.
Pages:
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262