Poe, Edgar Allen - The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe

by Volume 01-05 (lit)

  merely direct proportion with the augmentation of its sources, but in a

  ratio constantly increasing. In fact, a room with four or five mirrors

  arranged at random, is, for all purposes of artistic show, a room of no

  shape at all. If we add to this evil, the attendant glitter upon glitter,

  we have a perfect farrago of discordant and displeasing effects. The

  veriest bumpkin, on entering an apartment so bedizzened, would be

  instantly aware of something wrong, although he might be altogether unable

  to assign a cause for his dissatisfaction. But let the same person be led

  into a room tastefully furnished, and he would be startled into an

  exclamation of pleasure and surprise.

  It is an evil growing out of our republican institutions, that here a

  man of large purse has usually a very little soul which he keeps in it.

  The corruption of taste is a portion or a pendant of the dollar-manufac

  sure. As we grow rich, our ideas grow rusty. It is, therefore, not among

  _our _aristocracy that we must look (if at all, in Appallachia), for the

  spirituality of a British _boudoir. _But we have seen apartments in the

  tenure of Americans of moderns [possibly "modest" or "moderate"] means,

  which, in negative merit at least, might vie with any of the _or-molu'd

  _cabinets of our friends across the water. Even _now_, there is present to

  our mind's eye a small and not, ostentatious chamber with whose

  decorations no fault can be found. The proprietor lies asleep on a sofa -

  the weather is cool - the time is near midnight: arc will make a sketch of

  the room during his slumber.

  It is oblong - some thirty feet in length and twenty-five in breadth -

  a shape affording the best(ordinary) opportunities for the adjustment of

  furniture. It has but one door - by no means a wide one - which is at one

  end of the parallelogram, and but two windows, which are at the other.

  These latter are large, reaching down to the floor - have deep recesses -

  and open on an Italian _veranda. _Their panes are of a crimson-tinted

  glass, set in rose-wood framings, more massive than usual. They are

  curtained within the recess, by a thick silver tissue adapted to the shape

  of the window, and hanging loosely in small volumes. Without the recess

  are curtains of an exceedingly rich crimson silk, fringed with a deep

  network of gold, and lined with silver tissue, which is the material of

  the exterior blind. There are no cornices; but the folds of the whole

  fabric (which are sharp rather than massive, and have an airy appearance),

  issue from beneath a broad entablature of rich giltwork, which encircles

  the room at the junction of the ceiling and walls. The drapery is thrown

  open also, or closed, by means of a thick rope of gold loosely enveloping

  it, and resolving itself readily into a knot; no pins or other such

  devices are apparent. The colours of the curtains and their fringe - the

  tints of crimson and gold - appear everywhere in profusion, and determine

  the _character _of the room. The carpet - of Saxony material - is quite

  half an inch thick, and is of the same crimson ground, relieved simply by

  the appearance of a gold cord (like that festooning the curtains) slightly

  relieved above the surface of the _ground, _and thrown upon it in such a

  manner as to form a succession of short irregular curves - one

  occasionally overlaying the other. The walls are prepared with a glossy

  paper of a silver gray tint, spotted with small Arabesque devices of a

  fainter hue of the prevalent crimson. Many paintings relieve the expanse

  of paper. These are chiefly landscapes of an imaginative cast-such as the

  fairy grottoes of Stanfield, or the lake of the Dismal Swamp of Chapman.

  There are, nevertheless, three or four female heads, of an ethereal

  beauty-portraits in the manner of Sully. The tone of each picture is warm,

  but dark. There are no "brilliant effects." _Repose _speaks in all. Not

  one is of small size. Diminutive paintings give that _spotty _look to a

  room, which is the blemish of so many a fine work of Art overtouched. The

  frames are broad but not deep, and richly carved, without being _dulled

  _or filagreed. They have the whole lustre of burnished gold. They lie flat

  on the walls, and do not hang off with cords. The designs themselves are

  often seen to better advantage in this latter position, but the general

  appearance of the chamber is injured. But one mirror - and this not a very

  large one - is visible. In shape it is nearly circular - and it is hung so

  that a reflection of the person can be obtained from it in none of the

  ordinary sitting-places of the room. Two large low sofas of rosewood and

  crimson silk, gold-flowered, form the only seats, with the exception of

  two light conversation chairs, also of rose-wood. There is a pianoforte

  (rose-wood, also), without cover, and thrown open. An octagonal table,

  formed altogether of the richest gold-threaded marble, is placed near one

  of the sofas. This is also without cover - the drapery of the curtains has

  been thought sufficient.. Four large and gorgeous Sevres vases, in which

  bloom a profusion of sweet and vivid flowers, occupy the slightly rounded

  angles of the room. A tall candelabrum, bearing a small antique lamp with

  highly perfumed oil, is standing near the head of my sleeping friend. Some

  light and graceful hanging shelves, with golden edges and crimson silk

  cords with gold tassels, sustain two or three hundred magnificently bound

  books. Beyond these things, there is no furniture, if we except an Argand

  lamp, with a plain crimson-tinted ground glass shade, which depends from

  He lofty vaulted ceiling by a single slender gold chain, and throws a

  tranquil but magical radiance over all.

  ~~~ End Of Text ~~~

  ======

  A TALE OF JERUSALEM

  Intensos rigidarn in frontern ascendere canos

  Passus erat----

  _ -Lucan--De Catone_

  ---a bristly _bore._

  _Translation_

  LET us hurry to the walls," said Abel-Phittim to Buzi-Ben-Levi and Simeon

  the Pharisee, on the tenth day of the month Thammuz, in the year of the

  world three thousand nine hundred and fortyone--let us hasten to the

  ramparts adjoining the gate of Benjamin, which is in the city of David,

  and overlooking the camp of the uncircumcised; for it is the last hour of

  the fourth watch, being sunrise; and the idolaters, in fulfilment of the

  promise of Pompey, should be awaiting us with the lambs for the

  sacrifices."

  Simeon, Abel-Phittim, and Duzi-Ben-Levi were the Gizbarim, or

  sub-collectors of the offering, in the holy city of Jerusalem.

  "Verily," replied the Pharisee; "let us hasten: for this generosity in the

  heathen is unwonted; and fickle-mindedness has ever been an attribute of

  the worshippers of Baal."

  "'That they are fickle-minded and treacherous is as true as the

  Pentateuch," said Buzi-Ben-Levi, "but that is only toward the people of

  Adonai. When was it ever known that the Ammonites proved wanting to their

  own interests? Methinks it is no great stretch of generosity to allow us

  lambs for the altar of the Lord, receiving in lieu thereo
f thirty silver

  shekels per head !"

  "Thou forgettest, however, Ben-Levi," replied Abel-Phittim, "that the

  Roman Pompey, who is now impiously besieging the city of the Most High,

  has no assurity that we apply not the lambs thus purchased for the altar,

  to the sustenance of the body, rather than of the spirit."

  "Now, by the five corners of my beard!" shouted the Pharisee, who belonged

  to the sect called The Dashers (that little knot of saints whose manner of

  _dashing _and lacerating the feet against the pavement was long a thorn

  and a reproach to less zealous devotees-a stumbling-block to less gifted

  perambulators)--"by the five corners of that beard which, as a priest, I

  am forbidden to shave !-have we lived to see the day when a blaspheming

  and idolatrous upstart of Rome shall accuse us of appropriating to the

  appetites of the flesh the most holy and consecrated elements? Have we

  lived to see the day when---"'

  "Let us not question the motives of the Philistine," interrupted

  Abel-Phittim' "for to-day we profit for the first time by his avarice or

  by his generosity; but rather let us hurry to the ramparts, lest offerings

  should be wanting for that altar whose fire the rains of heaven can not

  extinguish, and whose pillars of smoke no tempest can turn aside."

  That part of the city to which our worthy Gizbarim now hastened, and which

  bore the name of its architect, King David, was esteemed the most strongly

  fortified district of Jerusalem; being situated upon the steep and lofty

  hill of Zion. Here, a broad, deep, circumvallatory trench, hewn from the

  solid rock, was defended by a wall of great strength erected upon its

  inner edge. This wall was adorned, at regular interspaces, by square

  towers of white marble; the lowest sixty, and the highest one hundred and

  twenty cubits- in height. But, in the vicinity of the gate of Benjamin,

  the wall arose by no means from the margin of the fosse. On the contrary,

  between the level of the ditch and the basement of the rampart sprang up a

  perpendicular cliff of two hundred and fifty cubits, forming part of the

  precipitous Mount Moriah. So that when Simeon and his associates arrived

  on the summit of the tower called Adoni-Bezek-the loftiest of all the

  turrets around about Jerusalem, and the usual place of conference with the

  besieging army-they looked down upon the camp of the enemy from an

  eminence excelling by many feet that of the Pyramid of Cheops, and, by

  several, that of the temple of Belus.

  "Verily," sighed the Pharisee, as he peered dizzily over the precipice,

  "the uncircumcised are as the sands by the seashore-as the locusts in the

  wilderness! The valley of the King hath become the valley of Adommin."

  "And yet," added Ben-Levi, "thou canst not point me out a Philistine-no,

  not one-from Aleph to Tau-from the wilderness to the battlements---who

  seemeth any bigger than the letter Jod!"

  "Lower away the basket with the shekels of silver!" here shouted a Roman

  soldier in a hoarse, rough voice, which appeared to issue from the regions

  of Pluto---"lower away the basket with the accursed coin which it has

  broken the jaw of a noble Roman to pronounce! Is it thus you evince your

  gratitude to our master Pompeius, who, in his condescension, has thought

  fit to listen to your idolatrous importunities? The god Phoebus, who is a

  true god, has been charioted for an hour-and were you not to be on the

  ramparts by sunrise? Aedepol! do you think that we, the conquerors of the

  world, have nothing better to do than stand waiting by the walls of every

  kennel, to traffic with the dogs of the earth? Lower away! I say--and see

  that your trumpery be bright in color and just in weight!"

  "El Elohim!" ejaculated the Pharisee, as the discordant tones of the

  centurion rattled up the crags of the precipice, and fainted away against

  the temple -"El Elohim!--who is the god Phoebus?--whom doth the blasphemer

  invoke? Thou, Buzi-BenLevi! who art read in the laws of the Gentiles, and

  hast sojourned among them who dabble with the Teraphim!--is it Nergal of

  whom the idolater speaketh?----or Ashimah?--or Nibhaz,--or Tartak? --or

  Adramalech?--or Anamalech?--or Succoth-Benith?---or Dagon?---or

  Belial?---or Baal-Perith? -or Baal-Peor?---or Baal-Zebub?"

  "Verily it is neither-but beware how thou lettest the rope slip too

  rapidly through thy fingers; for should the wicker-work chance to hang on

  the projection of Yonder crag, there will be a woful outpouring of the

  holy things of the sanctuary."

  By the assistance of some rudely constructed machinery, the heavily laden

  basket was now carefully lowered down among the multitude; and, from the

  giddy pinnacle, the Romans were seen gathering confusedly round it; but

  owing to the vast height and the prevalence of a fog, no distinct view of

  their operations could be obtained.

  Half an hour had already elapsed.

  "We shall be too late!" sighed the Pharisee, as at the expiration of this

  period he looked over into the abyss-"we shall be too late! we shall be

  turned out of office by the Katholim."

  "No more," responded Abel-Phittim----"no more shall we feast upon the fat

  of the land-no longer shall our beards be odorous with frankincense--our

  loins girded up with fine linen from the Temple."

  "Racal" swore Ben-Levi, "Racal do they mean to defraud us of the purchase

  money? or, Holy Moses ! are they weighing the shekels of the tabernacle ?"

  "They have given the signal at last!" cried the Pharisee-----"they have

  given the signal at last!pull away, Abel-Phittim!-and thou, Buzi-Ben-Levi,

  pull away!-for verily the Philistines have either still hold upon the

  basket, or the Lord hath softened their hearts to place therein a beast of

  good weight!" And the Gizbarim pulled away, while their burden swung

  heavily upward through the still increasing mist.

  "Booshoh he!"-as, at the conclusion of an hour, some object at the

  extremity of the rope became indistinctly visible-"Booshoh he!" was the

  exclamation which burst from the lips of Ben-Levi.

  . . . . . . . . . .

  "Booshoh he!--for shame!-it is a ram from the thickets of Engedi, and as

  rugged as the valley of jehosaphat!"

  "It is a firstling of the flock," said Abel-Phittim, "I know him by the

  bleating of his lips, and the innocent folding of his limbs. His eyes are

  more beautiful than the jewels of the Pectoral, and his flesh is like the

  honey of Hebron."

  "It is a fatted calf from the pastures of Bashan," said the Pharisee, "the

  heathen have dealt wonderfully with us ----let us raise up our voices in a

  psalm --let us give thanks on the shawm and on the psaltery-on the harp

  and on the huggab-on the cythern and on the sackbut!"

  It was not until the basket had arrived within a few feet of the Gizbarim

  that a low grunt betrayed to their perception a hog of no common size.

  "Now El Emanu!" slowly and with upturned eyes ejaculated the trio, as,

  letting go their hold, the emancipated porker tumbled headlong among the

  Philistines, "El Emanu!-God be with us---it is _the unutterable flesh!"_

  ~~~~~~ End of Text ~~~~~~

/>   ======

  THE SPHINX

  DURING the dread reign of the Cholera in New York, I had accepted the

  invitation of a relative to spend a fortnight with him in the retirement

  of his _cottage ornee_ on the banks of the Hudson. We had here around us

  all the ordinary means of summer amusement; and what with rambling in the

  woods, sketching, boating, fishing, bathing, music, and books, we should

  have passed the time pleasantly enough, but for the fearful intelligence

  which reached us every morning from the populous city. Not a day elapsed

  which did not bring us news of the decease of some acquaintance. Then as

  the fatality increased, we learned to expect daily the loss of some

  friend. At length we trembled at the approach of every messenger. The very

  air from the South seemed to us redolent with death. That palsying

  thought, indeed, took entire possession of my soul. I could neither speak,

  think, nor dream of any thing else. My host was of a less excitable

  temperament, and, although greatly depressed in spirits, exerted himself

  to sustain my own. His richly philosophical intellect was not at any time

  affected by unrealities. To the substances of terror he was sufficiently

  alive, but of its shadows he had no apprehension.

  His endeavors to arouse me from the condition of abnormal gloom into which

  I had fallen, were frustrated, in great measure, by certain volumes which

  I had found in his library. These were of a character to force into

  germination whatever seeds of hereditary superstition lay latent in my

  bosom. I had been reading these books without his knowledge, and thus he

  was often at a loss to account for the forcible impressions which had been

  made upon my fancy.

  A favorite topic with me was the popular belief in omens -- a belief