Nature and the Supernatural 33 



ing out into the blue. "The third world in its train 

 is new. Go you and make and paint me some flow- 

 ers for its adornment, and weave me some robes for 

 my birdlings there. And you — make me some 

 forests for its hills and plains." 



How they thanked him, and how they flew ! 



They found that others had preceded them. 

 One dashing spirit with a taste for curiosity and 

 color had formed an orchid to grow in the ground. 

 Another still more daring had formed one which 

 would grow, rootless, in the air. Our earth-born 

 spirit pondered long how she might best please the 

 Lord; and when her first work was completed — lo, 

 the passion-flower! 



Her brother found an aspiring genius building 

 up a forest of towering redwood, another, an artist, 

 trimming and draping a tree, which, when he had 

 finished it, proved to be something like the cut- 

 leaved birch. Remembering that his Lord had 

 compared himself to a vine, he applied himself to 

 the production of one which should be lovely of 

 aspect, sweet of bloom, and of unmatched flavor 

 and aroma and color of fruit. Time? There is no 

 time in eternity! 



We traced ecclesiastical architecture to its 

 sources in the forests — mentioning the spire, the 

 arch, the gothic pillar, and the gargoyle. This last 

 and much of the grotesquery which art employs to 

 emphasize and set off its harmonies is found in a 



