Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1850 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II. ANTICHRIST. We now change the scene. No longer by the mountain-side, or down into the valley, or through green pastures and among clustering vines lies our secluded path: halls of grandeur, surpassing the ordinary work of man, rich with Parian marble, interspersed with ivory and alabaster; sumptuous hangings, where mouldings of burnished gold peep forth amid the sweeping festoons of purple and crimson; tapestry, the rarest that could be culled from Saracenic spoils; and sculpture of unequalled beauty, in every form that art might borrow from creation's wonders, --all this, and more than all that modern fancy may body forth from the luxurious shadows of antique magnificence, we shall encounter while pacing the wide saloons, and vaulted corridors, and mounting the broad marble stairs, all studded with the trophies of a prostrate world, in a thousand varied forms of costliness and grace. 'But among them we will not pause; the foot falls noiselessly now on carpets of delicate texture, a luxury unknown as yet in many king's houses; and .we approach a retired apartment, where splendor holds but the second rank, its prominent feature being that of studious comfort and convenience, in their most perfect manifestation. The mellow light falls softly on. a spacious board formed of some precious wood, and covered with purple cloth, of which the golden fringe nearly sweeps the ground; and this is piled with manuscripts, and documents of various bulk, from the thick volume of Roman and of Grecian lore, to the familiar letter, and its half-completed reply now thrown aside for more important avocation. And who is he, the presiding spirit of the studious, solitary scene? There is that in it and in him which bespeaks him lord of the palace..
