One day he came upon a crystal spring and a bevy of flowers that were going down to a valley between black columns reaching to the sky.  With familiar words they greeted him kindly.  “My dear countrymen,” he said, “pray, where am I to find the sacred abode of Isis?  It must be somewhere in this vicinity, and you are probably better acquainted here than I.”  “We, too, are only passing through this region,” the flowers answered; “a family of spirits is traveling and we are making ready the road and preparing lodgings for them; but we came through a region lately where we heard her name called.  Just walk upward in the direction from which we are coming and you will be sure to learn more.”  The flowers and the spring smiled as they said this, offered him a drink of fresh water, and went on.

Hyacinth followed their advice, asked and asked, and finally reached that long-sought dwelling concealed behind palms and other choice plants.  His heart beat with infinite longing and the most delicious yearning thrilled him in this abode of the eternal seasons.  Amid heavenly fragrance he fell into slumber, since naught but dreams might lead him to the most sacred place.  To the tune of charming melodies and in changing harmonies did his dream guide him mysteriously through endless apartments filled with curious things.  Everything seemed so familiar to him and yet amid a splendor that he had never seen; then even the last tinge of earthliness vanished as though dissipated in the air, and he stood before the celestial virgin.  He lifted the filmy, shimmering veil and Roseblossom fell into his arms.  From afar a strain of music accompanied the mystery of the loving reunion, the outpourings of their longing, and excluded all that was alien from this delightful spot.  After that Hyacinth lived many years with Roseblossom near his happy parents and comrades, and innumerable grandchildren thanked the mysterious old woman for her advice and her fire; for at that time people got as many children as they wanted.

APHORISMS[33]

By NOVALIS

TRANSLATED BY FREDERIC H. HEDGE

Where no gods are, spectres rule.

The best thing that the French achieved by their Revolution, was a portion of Germanity.

Germanity is genuine popularity, and therefore an ideal.

Where children are, there is the golden age.

Spirit is now active here and there:  when will Spirit be active in the whole?  When will mankind, in the mass, begin to consider?

Nature is pure Past, foregone freedom; and therefore, throughout, the soil of history.

The antithesis of body and spirit is one of the most remarkable and dangerous of all antitheses.  It has played an important part in history.

Only by comparing ourselves, as men, with other rational beings, could we know what we truly are, what position we occupy.