Imagine these roads, delineated to the
eye by tall chimneys or tubes of glass through which played an electric
current, converting each one into a lambent pillar. Imagine between
these paths of greenish opalescence the squares of buildings of domed,
arched and castellated roofs, pierced and starred, and spread in lines
and patterns of white electric lamps. The noble proportions of the
larger buildings, the graceful outlines of turreted or campanulate
erections, and the smaller houses were all defined. I could see canals
or rivers of water winding through the City spanned by arches of flame,
and even the symmetrical disposition of the dark-leaved trees was
visible.
"But the night was still further turned to day, for above the City, high
in the velvet black empyrean were suspended thousands of glass balloons,
each emitting the Geissler-like illumination that marked the lines of
streets. So full and opulent was the flood of light, that the summit I
had reached, the encircling hills, and the farther side of the
saucer-shaped valley where Scandor lay, were bathed in an equally
diffused radiation.
"But, as if the heavenly marvel might still further startle and amaze
and charm me, from the City rose the swelling chords of choruses;
billows of sound, softened by distance, beat in melodious surges on the
high encompassing lands.
"I stood mute and transfixed. It seemed a beatific vision. If the very
air had been filled with ascending choruses of angels, if the dark
zenith had opened and revealed the throne of the Almighty, it would have
seemed but a congruous and expected climax.
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