MAN AND THEMETHOD OFEVOLUTION 119
color combinations. He soon learns that his thought blends
and shapes these colors at will. His creations glow and
scintillate with a life impossible of attainment to one who
works with the dull pigments of Earth. He is, as it were,
painting with living, glowing materials and able to execute
his designs with a facility which fills his soul with delight.
The musician has not yet reached the place where his art will
express itself to the fullest extent. The Physical World is the
world ofForm. The Des ir e World, wher e we find purgatory
and the first heaven, is particularly the world ofColor; but
the World of Thought, where the second and third heavens
are located, is the sphere ofTone. Celestial music is a fact
and not a mere figure of speech. Pythagoras was not
romancing when he spoke of the music of the spheres, for
each one of the heavenly orbs has its definite tone and
together they sound the celestial symphony which Goethe
also mentions in the prolog to his “Faust,” where the scene
is laid in heaven. The Archangel Raphael says,
The Sun intones his ancient song
'Mid rival chant of brother spheres.
His prescribed course he speeds along
In thund'rous way throughout the years.
Echoes of that heavenly music reach us even here in the
Physical World. They are our most precious possession,
even though they are as elusive as a will-o'-the-wisp, and
cannot b e p er manent ly creat ed, as can ot her works of art—a
statue, a painting, or a book. In the Physical World tone dies
and va nishes the moment after it is born. In the first heaven
these echoes are, of course, much more beautiful and have
more permanency, hence there the musician hears sweeter
strains than ever he did during earth life.
The experiences of the poet are akin to those of the