Humble and contemptible in appearance as it was, yet
there, as it stood--smokeless, alone, and desolate, as we have said,
with no exponent of existence about it--no bird singing, no animal
moving, as a token of contiguous life, no tree waving in the breeze, no
shrub, even, stirring, but all still as the grave--there, we say, as
it stood, afar and apart from the general uproar of the world, and
apparently gray with long antiquity, it was a solemn and a melancholy
homily upon human life in all its aspects, from the cabin to the palace,
and from the palace to the grave. Now, its position and appearance might
suggest to a thinking and romantic mind all the reflections to which v&
have alluded, without any additional accessories; but when the reader is
informed that it was supposed to be the abode of crime, the rendezvous
of evil spirits, the theatre of unholy incantations, and the temporary
abode of the Great Tempter--and when all these facts are taken in
connection with its desolate character, he will surely admit that it was
calculated to impress the mind of all those who knew the history of its
antecedents with awe and dread.
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