“In these transcendent lines we have the poet speaking as the personification and representative of the Aryan race, the race, which, having its origin in the plains of Kashmir, has by virtue of the spirit of conquest, the desire to be seeking what is yet unfound, finally reached the western edge of the American Continent, whence it ’faces west from California’s shores’ and looks toward the House of Maternity, the Land of Migrations from which it originally sprang.”

“It seems hardly possible to conceive of an inscription that embodies such a tremendous thought, and is, at the same time, so appropriate to the purpose for which it is suggested.  It comes, moreover, from the poet who above all others represents the spirit of the American people and the ideals of democracy.”

You now feel the import of the Occidentals who, with that Aryan spirit, have with mighty power, such as Hercules alone possessed (as Perham Nahl’s poster tells you) severed two continents and introduced the Panama Canal.

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Next read the far-seeing words of Goethe in his letters to Eckermann (on the west side of The Arch of the Setting Sun): 

“It is absolutely indispensable for the United States to effect a passage from the Mexican Gulf to the Pacific Ocean, and I am certain that they will do it.  Would that I could live to see it, but I shall not.”

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The Historical Side of the Court of the Universe

Begin with Mr. Edward Simmon’s murals on either side of the Gateway of the Rising Sun.

Facing east, the mural on the right represents The Nations That Have Crossed the Atlantic (Greece, Italy, Spain, England, France, etc.) and the special types are these: 

1.  The savage of the lost Atlantis. 2.  The Graeco-Roman sharpening his blade. 3.  Columbus, the type of adventurer. 4.  Sir Walter Raleigh, the type of colonist. 5.  The priest, representing the Jesuit missionaries. 6.  The artist. 7.  The workman. 8.  The (veiled) Future listening to the Past.

The people of the old world, with all their traditions, cross the Atlantic, led by the “Spirit of Adventure” (with his bugle calling them to come).

The mural on the opposite side shows the aspirations, etc., of the group just examined.

Reading from left to right we find the men had hopes (and some false hopes — but bubbles), commerce, inspiration, truth, religion, wealth and family in their minds.

Cross to the Gateway of the Setting Sun looking at the mural on the right as you face west.

Time has moved on since those early colonists came to the Atlantic shores and now the Spirit of Abundance (with her overflowing golden cornucopia) is sounding the call for all to follow.

Many leave their homes to join the great throng that is moving westward.  The wagon is laden with the necessaries of life for the new home in the western country.  You see the feather bed, the old grandfather’s clock that stood on the stairs, the scythe, the pitchfork and the rake for their agricultural interests, etc.  On the right the young man who has said goodbye to his wife now turns to his aged parents.  The mother, overcome with grief at parting, stands speechless, and the grey-haired father shakes his boy’s hands and wishes him “Godspeed.”