THE TRIUMPH OF LIFE 



mg spring anemone, while the inner half of the 

 shaft appears like a massive frame work 

 through the meshes of the trellis. On the per- 

 forated arch of this trellis work are suspended 

 almost like a breath many hundred of the finest 

 silver filagree shafts, each broken into a many 

 notched zigzag line, all of such extreme deli- 

 cacy that they quiver like a kind of silver steam 

 over the perfectly visible trellis ball and its sup- 

 port. The material of this work of art appears 

 to be of silver metal, but at the same time light 

 shines through it as though it were a crystal 

 mass, that only in its bending throws out silver 

 reflections. 



A slight pressure of the apparatus and a 

 second tiny microscopic point extends itself be- 

 fore the light circle in the same large manner. 

 Out of the same material, in similar fabulously 

 beautiful workmanship appears a silver crown. 

 It is the familiar shape of our ornamented treas- 

 ure, the old holy form of a ring above which 

 the arch of the crown makes three crossing half 

 moons. Between the three arches an ethereal 

 transparent trellis work spins itself. A new pic- 

 ture, and this crown is transformed from its im- 

 perial shape into a wild fancy, into the fantas- 

 tic diadem of a water sprite, circles and arches 

 cut out of jagged coral branches, a silver thorn 

 crown, but the thorn crown of an artist, every 

 little filament regularl}^ arranged. In the follow- 



4r> 



