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Historic Types
Finial Figures, Tower of Jewels

Historic Types

As repeated alternating figures on the top of corner pedestals on the first stage of the Tower of Jewels, stand The Four Agents of Civilization, the historic influences that have developed our American life. These, the Adventurer, the Soldier, the Priest and the Philosopher, have been presented with vivid simplicity by John Flanagan.

He has given us, first, the Adventurous Explorer, romantic, courageous, he who crossed the uncharted seas and found new worlds; then the formidable conquering Soldier, he who founded settlements and held them with his sword or fought with natives for empire or riches for European monarchs; then the Missionary Priest, inspired with a holy zeal to spread the divine message to strange peoples; and, last, the Philosopher, the Thinker, whose great influence is but now beginning. The treatment of these figures is quiet, restful and architectural in feeling, as becomes their position. They supply the serious note to the gala Tower.

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