In the panel of "The Survival of the Fittest" the battle of life is at
its height. The men are in a furious struggle of strength and prowess.
The interplay of human passions, the contests of wills and capacities,
has developed. The women, too, are taking a conscious part in life, one
weeping and shrinking from the fray, the other extending a restraining
hand. In the last and noblest panel, called "The Lesson of Life," we see
the spiritualized and intellect-guided emotions. A helmeted man and
pure-browed woman gaze tenderly in each other's eyes. Youth, full of
impulse and fire, stays to listen to the voice of Reason. The lover
keeps in touch with the guiding memory of the Mother. And the cycle is
completed from animal to mental toward the higher foundation of life
upon the earth. Seldom has more exaltation of thought or intensity of
feeling been infused, without mawkishness or exaggeration, into a work
of art. The Fountain of Earth, is deeply interpretive of the trend of
modern thought.



Helios
Separate Group, Fountain of Earth



On the wall of the basin of the Fountain of Earth, is a subsidiary group
called "Helios, the Sun." It is a decorative point of finish and is also
symbolic. The Sun is taken as the symbol of the Cosmos, the enduring,
the Day, the source of life. Man is pictured as clinging to it, in the
hope of being freed from the encircling coils of his baser self and the