The
indignant Prince of the Spirits, in his wrath, laid hold of the
Salamander, and said: 'Thy fire has burnt out, thy flames are
extinguished, thy rays darkened; sink down to the Spirits of the
Earth; let these mock and jeer thee, and keep thee captive, till the
Fire-element shall again kindle and beam up with thee as with a new
being from the Earth.' The poor Salamander sank down extinguished;
but now the testy old Earth-spirit, who was Phosphorus' gardener,
came forth and said: 'Master! who has greater cause to complain of the
Salamander than I? Had not all the fair flowers, which he has burnt,
been decorated with my gayest metals; had I not stoutly nursed and
tended their seeds, and spent many a fair hue on their leaves? And yet
I must pity the poor Salamander; for it was but love, in which thou, O
Master, hast full often been entangled, that drove him to despair
and made him desolate the garden. Remit him the too harsh
punishment!'--'His fire is for the present extinguished,' said the
Prince of the Spirits; 'but in the hapless time, when the Speech of
Nature shall no longer be intelligible to degenerate man; when the
Spirits of the Elements, banished into their own regions, shall speak
to him only from afar, in faint, spent echoes; when, displaced from
the harmonious circle, an infinite longing alone shall give him
tidings of the Land of Marvels, which he once might inhabit while
Faith and Love still dwelt in his soul--in this hapless time the fire
of the Salamander shall again kindle; 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.
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