The whole night long he would lift his splendor-blasted orbs to the moon and stars ; he turned his face eastward at sunrise as duly as a Persian idolater ; he made a pilgrimage to Rome to witness the magnificent illumination of Saint Peter 's church , and finally perished in the Great Fire of London , into the midst of which he had thrust himself with the desperate idea of catching one feeble ray from the blaze that was kindling earth and heaven . Matthew and his bride spent many peaceful years and were fond of telling the legend of the Great Carbuncle . The tale , however , toward the close of their lengthened lives , did not meet with the full credence that had been accorded to it by those who remembered the ancient lustre of the gem . For it is affirmed that from the hour when two mortals had shown themselves so simply wise as to reject a jewel which would have dimmed all earthly things its splendor waned . When our pilgrims reached the cliff , they found only an opaque stone with particles of mica glittering on its surface . There is also a tradition that as the youthful pair departed the gem was loosened from the forehead of the cliff and fell into the enchanted lake , and that at noontide the Seeker 's form may still be seen to bend over its quenchless gleam . Some few believe that this inestimable stone is blazing as of old , and say that they have caught its radiance , like a flash of summer lightning , far down the valley of the Saco . And be it owned that many a mile from the Crystal Hills I saw a wondrous light around their summits , and was lured by the faith of poesy to be the latest pilgrim of the Great Carbuncle . THE PROPHETIC PICTURES . -LSB- 1 -RSB- `` But this painter ! '' cried Walter Ludlow , with animation . `` He not only excels in his peculiar art , but possesses vast acquirements in all other learning and science . He talks Hebrew with Dr. Mather and gives lectures in anatomy to Dr. Boylston . In a word , he will meet the best-instructed man among us on his own ground . Moreover , he is a polished gentleman , a citizen of the world -- yes , a true cosmopolite ; for he will speak like a native of each clime and country on the globe , except our own forests , whither he is now going . Nor is all this what I most admire in him . '' -LSB- Footnote 1 : This story was suggested by an anecdote of Stuart related in Dunlap 's History of the Arts of Designs -- a most entertaining book to the general reader , and a deeply-interesting one , we should think , to the artist . -RSB- `` Indeed ! '' said Elinor , who had listened with a women 's interest to the description of such a man . `` Yet this is admirable enough . ''
`` Surely it is , '' replied her lover , `` but far less so than his natural gift of adapting himself to every variety of character , insomuch XXXXX all men -- and all women too , Elinor -- shall find a mirror of themselves in this wonderful painter .
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