agle, and will but cast her feathers to
begin a fresh thousand."

"But Egypt," interposed Aristo, "if old Herodotus speaks true, scarcely
had a beginning. Up and up, the higher you go, the more dynasties of
Egyptian kings do you find. And we hear strange reports of the nations in
the far east, beyond the Ganges."

"But I tell you, man," rejoined Cornelius, "Rome is a city of kings. That
one city, in this one year, has as many kings at once as those of all the
kings of all the dynasties of Egypt put together. Sesostris, and the rest
of them, what are they to imperators, prefects, proconsuls, _vicarii_, and
_rationales_? Look back at Lucullus, Caesar, Pompey, Sylla, Titus, Trajan.
What's old Cheops' pyramid to the Flavian amphitheatre? What is the
many-gated Thebes to Nero's golden house, while it was? What the grandest
palace of Sesostris or Ptolemy but a second-rate villa of any one of ten
thousand Roman citizens? Our houses stand on acres of ground, they ascend
as high as the Tower of Babylon; they swarm with columns like a forest;
they pullulate into statues and pictures. The walls, pavements, and
ceilings are dazzling from the lustre of the rarest marble, red and
yellow, green and mottled. Fountains of perfumed water shoot aloft from
the floor, and fish swim in rocky channels round about the room, waiting
to be caught and killed for the banquet. We dine; and we feast on the head
of the ostrich, the brains of the peacock, the liver of the bream, the
milk of the murena, and the tongue of the flamingo. A flight of doves,
nightingales, beccaficoes are concentrated into one dish. On great
occasions we eat a phoenix. Our saucepans are of silver, our dishes of
gold, our vases of onyx, and our cups of precious stones. Hangings and
carpets of Tyrian purple are around us and beneath us, and we lie on ivory
couches. The choicest wines of Greece and Italy crown our goblets, and
exotic flowers crown our heads. In come troops of dancers from Lydia, or
pantomimes from Alexandria, to entertain both eye and mind; or our noble
dames and maidens take a place at our tables; they wash in asses' milk,
they dress by mirrors as large as fish-ponds, and they glitter from head
to foot with combs, brooches, necklaces, collars, ear-rings, armlets,
bracelets, finger-rings, girdles, stomachers, and anklets, all of diamond
and emerald. Our slaves may be counted by thousands, and they come from
all parts of the world. Everything rare and precious i