with bended bow, symbolize Earth and Air. Originally they were intended
as finials to the double cascade which was to have swept down to the
court from the Altar of the Ages on the tower. The cascade was not
built, much to the benefit of the beauty of the court, but the ornaments
were suffered to remain. The giddy females who support each shaft are
sufficiently romantic to be in keeping with the decoration of the court.

The three figures repeated around the top of the arcade are of a hunter
dragging a deer, a woman with her offspring on her shoulder, and a
primitive man feeding a pelican, all so happily expressed that they are
an intimate part of the arcade on which they stand. They seem almost to
have grown from their supports. These figures alone, unless we add the
florid ladies of the ornamental shafts, with the rich filigree of the
arcades and the tower, are all that express in any way the idea of
Abundance carried in the present name of the court.

Mullgardt conceived this court as a sermon in stone. Its significance as
a whole is best explained by the architect himself. He interprets the
court as rising in four horizontal strata:

"The court is an historical expression of the successive Ages of the
world's growth. The central fountain symbolizes the nebulous world, with
its innate human passions. Out of a chaotic condition came Water (the
basin), and Land (the fountain), and Light (the Sun, supported by
Helios, and the electroliers). The braziers and cauldrons symbolize
Fire. The two sentinel columns to the right and left of the tower
symbolize Earth and Air. The eight paintings of the four corners of the
ambulatory symbolize the elements of Earth, Air, Fire and Water. The
central figure in the North Avenue symbolizes 'Modern Time Listening to
the Story of the Ages.'