They worshipped it as the
star of peace and goodness and purity. Many a pious Wolfram in those
dim centuries no doubt sang his evening hymn to the same star, for
love of some Chaldean Elizabeth--both he and she blown about the
desert how many centuries now as dust. Moreover on these records the
star and the Tree are brought together as here side by side. And the
story of the star leads backward to one of the first things that man
ever worshipped as he looked beyond the forest: the light of the
heavens floating in the depth of space--light that he wanted but could
not grasp.
He touched the next object on the Tree--the candle under the star--and
went on:
Imagine, he said, the forest worshipper as at the end of ages having
caught this light--having brought it down in the language of his myth
from heaven to earth: that is, imagine the star in space as having
become a star in his hand--the candle: the star worshipper had now
become also the fire worshipper. Thus the candle leads us back to the
fire worshippers of ancient Persia--those highlands of the spirit
seeking light. We think of the Christmas candle on the Tree as merely
borrowed from the candle of the altar for the purpose of illumination;
but the use of it goes back to a time when the forest worshipper, now
also the fire worshipper, hung his lights on the trees, having no
other altar.
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