The Japanese have a legend of an Emperor who commanded a
bell-founder to cast a bell that would be more beautiful than
any ever made and to be heard a hundred miles away. It must be
made of gold, silver and brass. But the metals would not mingle,
and the founder failed. The Emperor was angry, and bade him
try again. His beautiful daughter was troubled for her father
in his perplexity. So she consulted an oracle. “How can I save
him?” she asked. “Metals will mingle if the blood of a virgin
be mixt with them,” said the oracle suggestively. At the proper
moment the devoted daughter threw herself into her father’s
melting-pot. The bell was perfect, and was hung in the palace
tower.
This kind of sacrifice is not to be commended as a literal process,
but it remains true that no great music of the soul is born that does
not have in it some sacrificial element. Heaven’s melodies would never
sound if lives were not cast into the furnace. (Text.)
(2807)