Collected Works of Poe | Page 4

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 thereof 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