Aureole

“ The aureola, when enveloping the whole body, is generally oval or elliptical in form, but is occasionally circular or quatrefoil. When it is merely a luminous disk round the head, it is called specifically a nimbus, while the combination of nimbus and aureole is called a glory. The strict dis tinction between nimbus and aureole is not commonly maintained, and the latter term is most frequently used to denote the radiance round the heads of saints, angels, or persons of the Godhead. ”

“ And he, unheeding that Thatch Lane lay on the London and North-Western Railway, gave careless acquiescence. “I never stop long in any one place. We are birds of passage, Lady Auburn-hair, and when summer is over we will sing our songs in other lands.”
We? Our?—so what had been to her a thrilling pastime, he, deluded Troubadour, had actually meant? He had been building dreams of continuing their golden idyll in other lands? Aureole replied, in curiously vibrant tones:
“Once—I struck you—for suggesting—less than that.” ”

“ He paid Aureole the compliment of not for a moment believing that she was taking her fun all this while in a squalid furtive fashion, attempting to blend outward respectability with hidden romance. No; decidedly she had the courage of her emotional caprices; this had been proved by her prompt flight from Norfolk, directly she had convinced herself that it was necessary for her soul’s development and for the stimulation of Oliver’s after-marriage courtship.—“She’ll burn her boats right [306] enough—little fool!” Stuart muttered ”

“ The tympanums of the right and the left bays have both suffered much from years: they are blurred and defaced with age, and it is perhaps partly for this reason that, in spite of many fine points, they seem inferior, crude even, by the side of the tympanum of the central bay.
This is one of the most beautiful masterpieces of mediæval statuary. In the centre is the risen Christ, enthroned, triumphant, yet full of mercy and tenderness. An aureole is about His head, His feet are set upon the footstool of the earth. ”

“ Near this we may notice an ancient gravestone, or part of a monument found under the floor of the nave in St. Mary's Church, in 1829. It represents an angel with wings raised above the head, bearing a small naked figure, probably representing the soul of a bishop, as a crozier appears at the side; the angel has on a kind of cope with an ornamental border; and around the head is a large circular aureole, and the canopy [Pg 85] shows a mass of buildings with semicircular arches. There is an inscription on the rim, "St. ”

“ Aurore's particular favourites were two girls called Marie and Solange, daughters of a small farmer, and whenever she could get away she ran up to the farm, and helped them seek for eggs, pick fruit, or nurse the sickly little lambs. And apart from the pleasure the others took in all this, Aurore found one of her own, for the orchard became transformed by her fancy into a fairy wood, with little creatures having sharp ears and merry eyes peeping from behind the trees. ”

“ The Auricula grows in rocky places between 3000 and 7000 feet. It is only found in limestone districts, and is rather local. It is also to be met with in the Jura, Dauphiny, the Pyrenees, the Carpathians, and in one or two places in the Black Forest.
The Auricula will be readily recognised. From the Oxlip (Primula elatior) and Cowslip (Primula officinalis or veris) , it is distinguished by its smooth, not wrinkled, leaves and mealy stem. It is probable that most of the brilliantly coloured garden Auriculas were originally derived from this species. ”

“ And Aurelia—how did she stand there? I saw her too in my mind's eye; dazzlingly, provokingly, like a creature of pure light, with thrown-back head and parted lips, with jewels about her neck, as I had seen her in the theatre at Siena; and jewels also in her hair. Like a queen of beauty at a love-court, conscious of her power, loving it, proving it ”

“ To the lover of birds, the oriole in its flight among the trees, like a yellow meteor flashing past, is a sight that instantly rivets the attention, and is as delightfully startling to the eye as its song is to the ear. But I know of no device by means of which they can be attracted to nest in any given locality; their tastes are not well enough known to us; "houses," like those which attract the blue-bird and the martin, possess no charm for the oriole. With the first of June Gram watched, wistfully, for the return of this pair, during a number of successive springs ”

“ In a word, I was to discover a new Aurelia—Aurelia the affectionate wife, the careful minister; not the adored mistress of a feverish boy, the heroine of a Vita Nuova, the Beatrice of a, I fear me, profane comedy, the beloved of Aminta and the Pastor Fido. I own that I was dismayed, wounded in my tenderest part, at the discovery. Aurelia had suddenly become a stranger to my heart. ”

“ She was lithe and spare like a boy, and very strong. Her hair, which was abundant and loosely coiled upon the nape of her neck, was nearly black; not of that soft, cloudy dark which made Aurelia's so glorious, but as if burnt, with a hot, rusty tinge here and there about it. Though not now in the rags in which I saw her first, she was still poorly dressed, in the habit of the peasantry of that country, in a green petticoat and red bodice, which, like that of all unmarried girls here, was cut to display the bosom. ”

“ Our present subject has not entirely escaped from this general contagion, for if we refer to some old and long established growers of the Auricula, we find that one thinks that the rotted down roots of the Willow, is the only matrix in which it will approach perfection; others again suppose, that nothing is so suitable as rushes decomposed into mould, and a portion of the same material cut short in a fresh state, and strewed over the drainage; while some will not believe in any fertilizer, but blood, mixed up with maiden earth, and laid together for a season. ”

“ So bustling and energetic is he, so cheerful and self-confident, without unpleasant aggressiveness, that he always attracts attention. The uninitiated frequently call him an oriole, whom he does resemble in having a glossy black head, throat, back, and tail, and white markings on his wings, with reddish-brown like that of the orchard oriole on his sides; but there the resemblance ceases, for the oriole has in addition a reddish-brown breast, belly, and rump. ”

“ And I have no doubt that if Aurelia knew the old man, whom she must have seen so often watching her, and his wife, who ornaments her sex with as much sweetness, although with less splendor, than Aurelia herself, she would also acknowledge that the nosegay of roses was as fine and fit upon their table as her own sumptuous bouquet is for herself. I have that faith in the perception of that lovely lady. It is at least my habit—I hope I may say, my nature, to believe the best of people, rather than the worst. ”

“ In the hands of a master, this gray-green furnishes lustrous hues with brown pink, Italian pink, and Indian yellow; three beautiful but [268] fugitive pigments, of which the two last may be replaced by aureolin. Of this Mr. Penley observes, "as adapted for the colouring of foliage and herbage, it is impossible to say too much in its praise. It imparts the vividness and freshness of nature to every colour with which it is combined;" and he brackets oxide of chromium with aureolin as a compound hue "extremely useful." In flat tints, the oxide sometimes does not wash well in water. ”

“ The Auricula is divided by florists into four classes, viz, green edged, gray edged, white edged, and selfs, the edged classes being mostly esteemed as exhibition flowers, although the selfs are tolerated and encouraged. There are also, several double varieties, but these are not considered equally valuable, yet they are well worthy of attention.
The following criteria constitute what is considered to be the main points of excellence in a prize Auricula. The stem should be [199] strong, erect, and high enough to raise the truss of flowers above the foliage. ”

“ Hitherto, no Primitive Yellow has been quite satisfactory as to its persistence; so that the Aureolin will not only be regarded by the artist as a great boon in the production of his works, but it must also be considered as a real and lasting benefit to pictorial art in general. The permanence and unaltered purity of its lightest and faintest tints we are assured may be confidently relied upon, inasmuch as they have been fully established by the most severe tests to which colour can be subjected, by several of our ablest and most talented chemists. ”

“ Angels are playing on the ground and floating in the air; one turns over the leaves of the Saint's book, while another holds up to an angel hovering in the heavens a lily which has grown from the earth; the flower thus forming, as it were, a link between heaven and earth."
Eric was somewhat embarrassed by Roland's relating how he had fallen asleep in the chapel of the convent, and how suddenly the black nun stood beside him, and he saw the picture above him. ”

“ Auricula.—The Show Auricula is one of the reigning beauties of the floral world, and, like the Rose, has its own special exhibitions. Although the flower merits all the admiration it receives, yet it must be confessed that some amateurs indulge in a great deal of needless coddling in the work of raising it. ”

“ It prefers, I believe, the trees that grow on the sides of a gentle declivity. The choice of a twig being made, the male Oriole becomes extremely conspicuous. He flies to the ground, searches for the longest and driest filaments of the moss, which in that State is known by the name of Spanish Beard, and whenever he finds one fit for his purpose, ascends to the favourite spot where the nest is to be, uttering all the while a continued chirrup, which seems to imply that he knows no fear, but on the contrary fancies himself the acknowledged king of the woods. ”

“ Somewhere behind those shuttered windows on the second floor the inquisition was going forward. Three men to one. The relentless interrogation. The same question repeated in a hundred ways and the same unshakable refusal to give an answer. It was fitting indeed that nature should cast a shadow over such doings.
"And I'm part of it," said Auriole.
Her thoughts flew back to her first meeting with Barraclough during the war. She was nursing then at a hospital in Eastbourne. He had had a bullet through the foot and was sent to the sea to recuperate. Strange how instantly they had liked each other. ”

“ After the Auripigmentum is put in, stir the Lead well, and the Auripigmentum will flame: when the flame is over, take out some of the Lead in a Ladle having a lip or notch in the brim for convenient pouring out of the Lead, and being well warmed amongst the melted Lead, and with a stick make some single drops of Lead trickle out of the Ladle into water in a Glass, which if they fall to be round and without tails, there is Auripigmentum enough put in, and the temper of the heat is right, otherwise put in more. ”

“ He spoke seldom and always in short sentences, but Aurelle had learnt to appreciate his dry and vigorous humour and the charming smile which often lit up his rugged countenance.
"But don't you find yourself, Aurelle," went on Major Parker, "that intelligence is over-estimated with you? It is certainly more useful to know how to box than how to write. You would like Eton to go in for nothing but learning? It is just like asking a trainer of racehorses to be interested in circus horses. ”

“ The auricles are prime movers of the blood, especially the right auricle, which, as already said, is "the first to live, the last to die"; whence they are subservient to sending the blood into the ventricles, which, contracting continuously, more readily and forcibly expel the blood already in motion; just as the ball- player can strike the ball more forcibly and further if he takes it on the rebound than if he simply threw it. ”

“ If a tolerably large Aurelia is cut into a spiral strip of small width and great length, and if all the lithocysts are removed except one at one end of the strip, it may be observed that, after the occurrence of a natural pause, the first discharge only penetrates perhaps about a quarter of the length of the strip, the next discharge penetrates a little further, the next further, and so on, till finally the contraction waves pass from end to end. ”

“ A robin sang at the edge of a holly, and a thrush somewhere remote, and the world had become narrow and homely, the birds sounded secure like happily tired boys lazily undressing, and evidently they did not expect men. Three-quarters of a moon hung at the zenith, cold and fresh and white like an early spring flower. We grew silent, but at tea were particularly noisy and excited, too excited and near to tears, when I rushed upstairs. In the library I found Aurelius reading, with his back to the uncurtained window, by a light that only illuminated his face and page. ”

“ We hear much of the marvellous nests of tailor- and weaver-birds, but never of that of the oriole. Naturalists, equally with poets, have neglected this beautiful species. An oriole’s nest is in its way quite as wonderful as that of the tailor-bird. If a man were ordered to erect a cradle up in a tree, he would, I imagine, construct it precisely as the oriole does its nest. This last is a cup-shaped structure slung on to two or three branches of a tree by means of fibres which are wound first round one branch, then passed under the nest, and finally wound round another bough. ”