The peoples of Flowry. At last, after the shadow- 

 Gardens flitting passage of an aeon, the gods were 

 c e roused from their calm, and, looking down 

 into the shaken mirror of the world, beheld all 

 their dreams and visions and desires no longer 

 children of loveliness and breaths of song. In 

 these aeons while they had slept in peace the 

 Empire of Flowry had come to a dissolution : 

 race fought with race, tribe with tribe, clan 

 with clan. Among all the nations there was 

 a madness for supremacy, so that the weed in 

 the grass and the flame-crowned spire of the 

 aloe were at one in a fierce discontent and a 

 blind lust of dominion. Thereupon the gods 

 pondered among themselves. Kronos, who 

 had been the last to wake and was already 

 drowsy with old immemorial returning slumber, 

 murmured : ' A divine moment, O ye Brother- 

 hood of Eternity, is a long time wherein to 

 be disturbed by the mortal reflection of our 

 dreams and the passions and emotions of om- 

 en chanted hearts.' 



And as all the calm-eyed Immortals agreed, 

 Kronos sighed out the mandate of silence, and 

 turning his face to Eternity was again among 

 the august dreams of the Everlasting Ones. 



In that long moment — for there in the 

 other world it was but a brief leaning on their 

 elbows of the drowsy gods while the fans of 



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