He reposed in a glorified form in a transparent, dark, and yet colored
tulip-cup, which rocked him to and fro, because a gentle earthquake
made the tulip-bower sway on its bowed shaft. The flower stood in a
magnetic sea, which attracted the blest one more and more strongly; at
last he was drawn so far out, that he weighed it down, and fell as a
pearl of dew out of the drooping chalice....
What a colored world! A fleecy throng of ethereal forms like his stood
hovering over a broad island, about which played a circular balustrade
of great flowers in full blow,--above, in mid-heaven, over the island,
flew evening suns behind evening suns,--farther in, beside them ran
white moons,--near the horizon, stars traced their circles--and as
often as a sun or a moon flew downward, they gazed with a heavenly look
as of angels' eyes through the great flowers along the shore. The suns
were divided from the moons by rainbows, and all the stars ran between
two rainbows, and embroidered with silver the variegated ring of the
heavenly sphere. One above another rose gay clouds, in which burned a
kernel of gold, of silver, of precious stones,--from butterflies' wings
clouds of dust were shed, which like flying colors mantled the ground,
and out of the cloud flashed rushing floods of light, which were all
intertwined in one another....
And in this din of colors a sweet voice went round, saying everywhere,
_Die more sweetly of light_.
But the souls were only dazzled, and did not yet die.
Then evening winds and morning winds and noonday winds conspiring fell
upon the meadow and wafted down the bright-blue and gold-green clouds,
which had arisen out of flower-fragrance, and unfolded the ring of
flowers on the horizon, and bore the sweet perfume to the hearts of the
blest. The cloud of blossoms swallowed them into itself, the heart was
baptized into the dark scents as into a feeling from the deepest depths
of childhood, and, overwhelmed with the hot steam of flowers, would
fain drop asunder therein.--Now the unknown voice drew nearer, and
softly whispered, _Die more sweetly of fragrance_.
But the souls only grew giddy, and did not yet die. Far in the depths
of Eternity out of the south rose and fell, as in a curve, a single
tone,--a second rose in the east,--a third in the west,--at last from
the distance the whole heaven sounded, and the tones streamed over the
island, and seized upon the softened souls.... When the tones were upon
the island, all beings wept for bliss and longing.... Then on a sudden
the suns ran still faster, then the tones flew still higher, and,
ascending spirally, lost themselves in a keen, endless height,--ah,
then all the wounds of men opened again, and warmed softly with the
trickling blood every breast, which died in its melancholy,--ah then,
indeed, all came flying before us that we had loved here, all that we
had lost here, every precious hour, every lamented pasture, every
beloved being, every tear and every wish.----And when the highest tones
were hushed and pierced again, and were still longer mute and pierced
more deeply; then harmonica-bells trembled beneath human beings who
stood upon them, so that the piercing hum agitated to pieces every
trembler.--And a lofty form, around which a little dark cloud floated,
came up in a white veil and said melodiously, _Die more sweetly of
tones_.
Ah! they would have died and died gladly of the sadness of melody, if
every heart had held the heart for which it languished on its breast;
but every one still wept on lonesomely without his beloved.
At last the form threw off the white veil, and the _Angel of the
end_ stood before men. The little cloud that floated round him was
_Time_,--so soon as he should grasp the little cloud, he would crush
it, and time and men would be annihilated.
When the Angel of the end had unveiled himself, he smiled on men with
indescribable affection, in order to dissolve their hearts with bliss
and with smiles. And a soft light fell from his eyes upon all the
shapes, and every one saw standing before him the soul he most
loved,--and when they gazed upon each other with a dying look for love
and sent a languid smile after the angel, he grasped at the little
cloud which was near him,--but he could not reach it.
Suddenly each one saw once more beside him his own self,--the second
_I_ trembled transparently beside the first, and the two smiled
consumingly on each other and exalted each other,--the heart which
trembled in man hung once more, tremblingly, in the second self, and
saw itself dying therein.--
O then was every one constrained to fly from himself to his beloved,
and, seized with dread and love, to twine his arms round other beings
who were dear to him.--And the angel of the end opened his arms wide,
and clasped the whole human race together in one embrace.--Then the
whole meadow glimmers, breathes fragrance, rings with music,--then the
suns stop, but the island itself whirls around the suns,--the two
sundered selves run into each other,--the loving souls fall on each
other like snow-flakes,--the flakes become cloud,--the cloud melts into
a dark tear.--
The great tear of bliss, made out of us all, swims more transparent and
yet more transparent in Eternity.--
At last the Angel of the end said softly, _They have died most sweetly
of their beloved_.--