The light (which descended from above) was so powerful, that for nearly a minute I could distinguish nothing, and I rested on a form attached to the wainscoting. I then put up my hand to shade my eyes, when--the fearful vision is even now before me--I seemed to be standing before an abyss in space, boundless and black. In the midst of this permeable pitch stood a colossal mass of gold, in shape like an altar, and girdled about by a huge serpent, gorgeous and terrible; his body flecked with diamonds, and his head, an enormous carbuncle, floating like a meteor on the air above. Such was the Throne. But no words can describe the gigantic Being that sat thereon--the grace, the majesty, its transcendent form--and yet I shuddered as I looked, for its superhuman countenance seemed, as it were, to radiate falsehood; every feature was in contradiction--the eye, the mouth, even to the nostril--whilst the expression of the whole was of that unnatural softness which can only be conceived of malignant blandishment. It was the appalling beauty of the King of Hell. The frightful discord vibrated through my whole frame, and I turned for relief to the figure below.... But I had turned from the first, only to witness in the second object, its withering fascination. I beheld the mortal conflict between the conscience and the will--the visible struggle of a soul in the toils of sin. * * * * * From his "Letters." =_278._= ON A PICTURE BY CARRACCI. The subject was the body of the virgin borne for interment by four apostles. The figures are colossal; the tone dark, and of tremendous color. It seemed, as I looked at it, as if the ground shook at their tread, and the air was darkened by their grief. * * * * * =_279._= ORIGINALITY OF MIND. An original mind is rarely understood until it has been _reflected_ from some half dozen congenial with it; so averse are men to admitting the true in an unusual form; whilst any novelty, however fantastic, however false, is greedily swallowed. * * * * * =_James K. Paulding, 1779-1860._= (Manual, p. 510.) From "Letters from the South." =_280._= CHARACTER OF THE DUTCH AND GERMAN SETTLERS.