Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/272

light. Advancing towards him, it assumes a circular form, having a small yellow centre surrounded by a deep blue confined within a brilliant red circle.

Retaining its shape, but slowly enlarging in size, it becomes a circular rainbow, out of which emerges a form of beauty more resplendent than mortal eyes might bear. Approaching the Book of Fate, which lies closed upon a golden pedestal in this the deepest and most sacred portion of the Temple of the Sun, she opens it and inscribes in purple symbols these mystic signs.

.⁠	.⁠	.⁠	.⁠	.⁠	.⁠	.⁠	.⁠
.	.	.	.	.	.	.
.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.
.	.	.	.	.	.	.

Then waving her graceful aim over the entranced high priest, she re-enters the aerial circle: it closes and retires.

Alethes, recovering from the magic spells his powerful art had wrought, rushes to the Book of Fate, opens, and reads the revelation it unfolds.

Through ocean's depths to southern ice-fields roam,
Through solid strata seek earth's central fire,
Gull from each wondrous field, each distant home,
An offering meet for her thy soul's desire.

This gives rise to a series of moving and most instructive dioramas, in which the travels of Alethes are depicted.

1. A representation of all the inhabitants of the ocean, comprising big fishes, lobsters, and various crustacea, mollusca, coralines, &c. 2. A view of the antarctic regions,—a continent of ice with an active volcano and a river of boiling water, supplied by geysers cutting their way through cliffs of blue ice.

3. A diorama representing the animals whose various