The Ethics of the Dust eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 198 pages of information about The Ethics of the Dust.

The Ethics of the Dust eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 198 pages of information about The Ethics of the Dust.

Then St. Barbara hung her head quite down, and said she was very sorry she had been so foolish; and kissed Neith; and stood thinking a minute:  and then her eyes got bright again, and she said, she would go directly and build a chapel with five windows in it; four for the four cardinal virtues, and one for humility, in the middle, bigger than the rest.  And Neith very nearly laughed quite out, I thought; certainly her beautiful lips lost all their sternness for an instant; then she said, “Well, love, build it, but do not put so many colors into your windows as you usually do; else no one will be able to see to read, inside:  and when it is built, let a poor village priest consecrate it, and not an archbishop.”  St. Barbara started a little, I thought, and turned as if to say something; but changed her mind, and gathered up her train, and went out.  And Neith bent herself again to her loom, in which she was weaving a web of strange dark colors, I thought; but perhaps it was only after the glittering of St. Barbara’s embroidered train:  and I tried to make out the figures in Neith’s web, and confused myself among them, as one always does in dreams; and then the dream changed altogether, and I found myself, all at once, among a crowd of little Gothic and Egyptian spirits, who were quarreling:  at least the Gothic ones were trying to quarrel; for the Egyptian ones only sat with their hands on their knees, and their aprons sticking out very stiffly; and stared.  And after a while I began to understand what the matter was.  It seemed that some of the troublesome building imps, who meddle and make continually, even in the best Gothic work, had been listening to St. Barbara’s talk with Neith; and had made up their minds that Neith had no workpeople who could build against them.  They were but dull imps, as you may fancy by their thinking that; and never had done much, except disturbing the great Gothic building angels at their work, and playing tricks to each other; indeed, of late they had been living years and years, like bats, up under the cornices of Strasbourg and Cologne cathedrals, with nothing to do but to make mouths at the people below.  However, they thought they knew everything about tower building; and those who had heard what Neith said, told the rest; and they all flew down directly, chattering in German, like jackdaws, to show Neith’s people what they could do.  And they had found some of Neith’s old workpeople somewhere near Sais, sitting in the sun, with their hands on their knees; and abused them heartily:  and Neith’s people did not mind at first, but, after a while, they seemed to get tired of the noise; and one or two rose up slowly, and laid hold of their measuring rods, and said, “If St. Barbara’s people liked to build with them, tower against pyramid, they would show them how to lay stones.”

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Project Gutenberg
The Ethics of the Dust from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.