; but only to manhood shall he
be permitted to rise, and, entering wholly into man's necessitous
existence, he shall learn to endure its wants and oppressions. Yet not
only shall the remembrance of his first state continue with him, but
he shall again rise into the sacred harmony of all Nature; he shall
understand its wonders, and the power of his fellow-spirits shall
stand at his behest. Then, too, in a Lily-bush, shall he find the
green Snake again, and the fruit of his marriage with her shall be
three daughters, which, to men, shall appear in the form of their
mother. In the spring season these shall disport them in the dark
Elder-bush, and sound with their lovely crystal voices. And then if,
in that needy and mean age of inward obduracy, there shall be found
a youth who understands their song; nay, if one of the little Snakes
look at him with her kind eyes; if the look awaken in him forecastings
of the distant, wondrous Land, to which, having cast away the burden
of the Common, he can courageously soar; if, with love to the Snake,
there rise in him belief in the Wonders of Nature, nay, in his own
existence amid these Wonders--then the Snake shall be his. But not
till three youths of this sort have been found and wedded to the three
daughters, may the Salamander cast away his heavy burden, and return
to his brothers.'--'Permit me, Master,' said the Earth-spirit, 'to
make these three daughters a present, which may glorify their life
with the husbands they shall find. Let each of them receive from me
a Pot, of the fairest metal which I have; I will polish it with
beams borrowed from the diamond; in its glitter shall our Kingdom
of Wonders, as it now exists in the Harmony of universal Nature, be
mirrored in glorious dazzling reflection; and from its interior, on
the day of marriage, shall spring forth a Fire-lily, whose eternal
blossom shall encircle the youth that is found worthy, with sweet
wafting odors. Soon too shall he learn its speech, and understand
the wonders of our kingdom, and dwell with his beloved in Atlantis
itself.'

"Thou perceivest well, dear Anselmus, that the Salamander of whom I
speak is no other than my father. Spite of his higher nature, he was
forced to subject himself to the paltriest afflictions of common life;
and hence, indeed, often comes the mischievous humor with which he
vexes many. He has told me now and then, that, for the inward make of
mind, which the Spirit-prince Phosphorus require