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BEAUTY OF FORM AND BEAUTY OF MIN

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  IN the narrow streets of a large town people often heard

  in the evening, when the sun was setting, and his last rays

  gave a golden tint1 to the chimney-pots, a strange noise which

  resembled the sound of a church bell; it only lasted an

  instant, for it was lost in the continual roar of traffic and

  hum of voices which rose from the town. "The evening bell is

  ringing," people used to say; "the sun is setting!" Those who

  walked outside the town, where the houses were less crowded

  and interspersed2 by gardens and little fields, saw the evening

  sky much better, and heard the sound of the bell much more

  clearly. It seemed as though the sound came from a church,

  deep in the calm, fragrant3 wood, and thither4 people looked

  with devout5 feelings.

  A considerable time elapsed: one said to the other, "I

  really wonder if there is a church out in the wood. The bell

  has indeed a strange sweet sound! Shall we go there and see

  what the cause of it is?" The rich drove, the poor walked, but

  the way seemed to them extraordinarily6 long, and when they

  arrived at a number of willow7 trees on the border of the wood

  they sat down, looked up into the great branches and thought

  they were now really in the wood. A confectioner from the town

  also came out and put up a stall there; then came another

  confectioner who hung a bell over his stall, which was covered

  with pitch to protect it from the rain, but the clapper was

  wanting.

  When people came home they used to say that it had been

  very romantic, and that really means something else than

  merely taking tea. Three persons declared that they had gone

  as far as the end of the wood; they had always heard the

  strange sound, but there it seemed to them as if it came from

  the town. One of them wrote verses about the bell, and said

  that it was like the voice of a mother speaking to an

  intelligent and beloved child; no tune9, he said, was sweeter

  than the sound of the bell.

  The emperor of the country heard of it, and declared that

  he who would really find out where the sound came from should

  receive the title of "Bellringer to the World," even if there

  was no bell at all.

  Now many went out into the wood for the sake of this

  splendid berth10; but only one of them came back with some sort

  of explanation. None of them had gone far enough, nor had he,

  and yet he said that the sound of the bell came from a large

  owl11 in a hollow tree. It was a wisdom owl, which continually

  knocked its head against the tree, but he was unable to say

  with certainty whether its head or the hollow trunk of the

  tree was the cause of the noise.

  He was appointed "Bellringer to the World," and wrote

  every year a short dissertation12 on the owl, but by this means

  people did not become any wiser than they had been before.

  It was just confirmation-day. The clergyman had delivered

  a beautiful and touching13 sermon, the candidates were deeply

  moved by it; it was indeed a very important day for them; they

  were all at once transformed from mere8 children to grown-up

  people; the childish soul was to fly over, as it were, into a

  more reasonable being.

  The sun shone most brightly; and the sound of the great

  unknown bell was heard more distinctly than ever. They had a

  mind to go thither, all except three. One of them wished to go

  home and try on her ball dress, for this very dress and the

  ball were the cause of her being confirmed this time,

  otherwise she would not have been allowed to go. The second, a

  poor boy, had borrowed a coat and a pair of boots from the son

  of his landlord to be confirmed in, and he had to return them

  at a certain time. The third said that he never went into

  strange places if his parents were not with him; he had always

  been a good child, and wished to remain so, even after being

  confirmed, and they ought not to tease him for this; they,

  however, did it all the same. These three, therefore did not

  go; the others went on. The sun was shining, the birds were

  singing, and the confirmed children sang too, holding each

  other by the hand, for they had no position yet, and they were

  all equal in the eyes of God. Two of the smallest soon became

  tired and returned to the town; two little girls sat down and

  made garlands of flowers, they, therefore, did not go on. When

  the others arrived at the willow trees, where the confectioner

  had put up his stall, they said: "Now we are out here; the

  bell does not in reality exist- it is only something that

  people imagine!"

  Then suddenly the sound of the bell was heard so

  beautifully and solemnly from the wood that four or five made

  up their minds to go still further on. The wood was very

  thickly grown. It was difficult to advance: wood lilies and

  anemones grew almost too high; flowering convolvuli and

  brambles were hanging like garlands from tree to tree; while

  the nightingales were singing and the sunbeams played. That

  was very beautiful! But the way was unfit for the girls; they

  would have torn their dresses. Large rocks, covered with moss

  of various hues14, were lying about; the fresh spring water

  rippled forth15 with a peculiar16 sound. "I don't think that can

  be the bell," said one of the confirmed children, and then he

  lay down and listened. "We must try to find out if it is!" And

  there he remained, and let the others walk on.

  They came to a hut built of the bark of trees and

  branches; a large crab-apple tree spread its branches over it,

  as if it intended to pour all its fruit on the roof, upon

  which roses were blooming; the long boughs17 covered the gable,

  where a little bell was hanging. Was this the one they had

  heard? All agreed that it must be so, except one who said that

  the bell was too small and too thin to be heard at such a

  distance, and that it had quite a different sound to that

  which had so touched men's hearts.

  He who spoke18 was a king's son, and therefore the others

  said that such a one always wishes to be cleverer than other

  people.

  Therefore they let him go alone; and as he walked on, the

  solitude of the wood produced a feeling of reverence19 in his

  breast; but still he heard the little bell about which the

  others rejoiced, and sometimes, when the wind blew in that

  direction, he could hear the sounds from the confectioner's

  stall, where the others were singing at tea. But the deep

  sounds of the bell were much stronger; soon it seemed to him

  as if an organ played an accompaniment- the sound came from

  the left, from the side where the heart is. Now something

  rustled among the bushes, and a little boy stood before the

  king's son, in wooden shoes and such a short jacket that the

  sleeves did not reach to his wrists. They knew each other: the

  boy was the one who had not been able to go with them because

  he had to take the coat and boots back to his landlord's son.

  That he had done, and had started again in his wooden shoes

  and old clothes, for the sound of the bell was too enticing-

  he felt he must go on.

  "We might go together," said the king's son. But the poor

  boy with the wooden shoes was quite ashamed; he pulled at the

  short sleeves of his jacket, and said that he was afraid he

  could not walk so fast; besides, he was of opinion that the

  bell ought to be sought at the right, for there was all that

  was grand and magnificent.

  "Then we shall not meet," said the king's son, nodding to

  the poor boy, who went into the deepest part of the wood,

  where the thorns tore his shabby clothes and scratched his

  hands, face, and feet until they bled. The king's son also

  received several good scratches, but the sun was shining on

  his way, and it is he whom we will now follow, for he was a

  quick fellow. "I will and must find the bell," he said, "if I

  have to go to the end of the world."

  Ugly monkeys sat high in the branches and clenched20 their

  teeth. "Shall we beat him?" they said. "Shall we thrash him?

  He is a king's son!"

  But he walked on undaunted, deeper and deeper into the

  wood, where the most wonderful flowers were growing; there

  were standing21 white star lilies with blood-red stamens,

  sky-blue tulips shining when the wind moved them; apple-trees

  covered with apples like large glittering soap bubbles: only

  think how resplendent these trees were in the sunshine! All

  around were beautiful green meadows, where hart and hind

  played in the grass. There grew magnificent oaks and

  beech-trees; and if the bark was split of any of them, long

  blades of grass grew out of the clefts22; there were also large

  smooth lakes in the wood, on which the swans were swimming

  about and flapping their wings. The king's son often stood

  still and listened; sometimes he thought that the sound of the

  bell rose up to him out of one of these deep lakes, but soon

  he found that this was a mistake, and that the bell was

  ringing still farther in the wood. Then the sun set, the

  clouds were as red as fire; it became quiet in the wood; he

  sank down on his knees, sang an evening hymn23 and said: "I

  shall never find what I am looking for! Now the sun is

  setting, and the night, the dark night, is approaching. Yet I

  may perhaps see the round sun once more before he disappears

  beneath the horizon. I will climb up these rocks, they are as

  high as the highest trees!" And then, taking hold of the

  creepers and roots, he climbed up on the wet stones, where

  water-snakes were wriggling24 and the toads25, as it were, barked

  at him: he reached the top before the sun, seen from such a

  height, had quite set. "Oh, what a splendour!" The sea, the

  great majestic26 sea, which was rolling its long waves against

  the shore, stretched out before him, and the sun was standing

  like a large bright altar and there where sea and heaven met-

  all melted together in the most glowing colours; the wood was

  singing, and his heart too. The whole of nature was one large

  holy church, in which the trees and hovering27 clouds formed the

  pillars, the flowers and grass the woven velvet28 carpet, and

  heaven itself was the great cupola; up there the flame colour

  vanished as soon as the sun disappeared, but millions of stars

  were lighted; diamond lamps were shining, and the king's son

  stretched his arms out towards heaven, towards the sea, and

  towards the wood. Then suddenly the poor boy with the

  short-sleeved jacket and the wooden shoes appeared; he had

  arrived just as quickly on the road he had chosen. And they

  ran towards each other and took one another's hand, in the

  great cathedral of nature and poesy, and above them sounded

  the invisible holy bell; happy spirits surrounded them,

  singing hallelujahs and rejoicing.

  THE END

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