Foreword

I visited many times the beautiful Courts of the Exposition and each time some new and lasting impression associated with the exquisite Court of the Ages was left indelibly upon my memory.

The purpose of this little volume is to present to my friends a mosaique of these cameo-like impressions and to add one more tribute of appreciation for this supreme expression of art.

From this Court emanated a wonderful spirit which had the power to haunt the soul with a divine light of consolation, of peace and of joy.

Time will prove that long after this glorious "shrine has sadly been bereft, and scattered to the winds of every clime," a precious memory of it will live on - graven upon the heart and stamped upon the mind of each beholder who was drawn into its perfect harmony.

To Mullgardt, the inspired creator of the Court of Ages, let me say in the words of Macauley: "This is the highest miracle of genius that things which are not should be as though they were, that the imaginations of one mind should become the personal recollections of another."



"And when the stream which overflowed the soul was passed away
A consciousness remained that it had left,
Deposited upon the silent shore
Of memory, images and precious thoughts,
That shall not die, and cannot be destroyed."

Wordsworth