Collected Works of Poe | Page 3

has an eye at all, of the ill effect of numerous looking-glasses,
and especially of large ones. Regarded apart from its reflection, the
mirror presents a continuous, flat, colourless, unrelieved surface, - a
thing always and obviously unpleasant. Considered as a reflector, it is
potent in producing a monstrous and odious uniformity: and the evil is
here aggravated, not in 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