Page:Passages from the Life of a Philosopher.djvu/272

256 light. Advancing towards him, it assumes a circular form, having a small yellow centre surrounded by a deep blue confined within a brilliant red circle.

Retaining its shape, but slowly enlarging in size, it becomes a circular rainbow, out of which emerges a form of beauty more resplendent than mortal eyes might bear. Approaching the Book of Fate, which lies closed upon a golden pedestal in this the deepest and most sacred portion of the Temple of the Sun, she opens it and inscribes in purple symbols these mystic signs.

Then waving her graceful aim over the entranced high priest, she re-enters the aerial circle: it closes and retires.

Alethes, recovering from the magic spells his powerful art had wrought, rushes to the Book of Fate, opens, and reads the revelation it unfolds.

This gives rise to a series of moving and most instructive dioramas, in which the travels of Alethes are depicted.

3. A diorama representing the animals whose various