And for all these purposes the gem itself could not have answered better than the granite . The poet , by a somewhat similar mistake , made prize of a great piece of ice which he found in a sunless chasm of the mountains , and swore that it corresponded in all points with his idea of the Great Carbuncle . The critics say that , if his poetry lacked the splendor of the gem , it retained all the coldness of the ice . The lord De Vere went back to his ancestral hall , where he contented himself with a wax-lighted chandelier , and filled in due course of time another coffin in the ancestral vault . As the funeral torches gleamed within that dark receptacle , there was no need of the Great Carbuncle to show the vanity of earthly pomp . The cynic , having cast aside his spectacles , wandered about the world a miserable object , and was punished with an agonizing desire of light for the wilful blindness of his former life . 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 ; XXXXX he will speak like a native of each clime and country on the globe , except our own forests , whither he is now going .
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