incipal room; and never was one more dazzling than this.
Suspended from the sculptured ceiling peopled with sporting cupids,
descend, by garlands of flowers and foliage, blazing chandeliers, whose
splendor is enhanced by the tail mirrors; the light streams down in
floods on gilding, diamonds, and beaming, arch physiognomies, on fine
busts, and on the capacious, sparkling and garlanded dresses. The skirts
of the ladies ranged in a circle, or in tiers on the benches, "form
a rich espalier covered with pearls, gold, silver, jewels, spangles,
flowers and fruits, with their artificial blossoms, gooseberries,
cherries, and strawberries," a gigantic animated bouquet of which the
eye can scarcely support the brilliancy. There are no black coats, as
nowadays, to disturb the harmony. With the hair powdered and dressed,
with buckles and knots, with cravats and ruffles of lace, in silk coats
and vests of the hues of fallen leaves, or of a delicate rose tint, or
of celestial blue, embellished with gold braid and embroidery, the men
are as elegant as the women. Men and women, each is a selection; they
all are of the accomplished class, gifted with every grace which good
blood, education, fortune, leisure and custom can bestow; they are
perfect of their kind. There is no toilet, no carriage of the head, no
tone of the voice, no expression in language which is not a masterpiece
of worldly culture, the distilled quintessence of all that is
exquisitely elaborated by social art. Polished as the high society of
Paris may be, it does not approach this;[2136] compared with the court,
it seems provincial. It is said that a hundred thousand roses are
required to make an ounce of the unique perfume used by Persian kings;
such is this drawing-room, the frail vial of crystal and gold containing
the substance of a human vegetation. To fill it, a great aristocracy
had to be transplanted to a hot-house and become sterile in fruit and
flowers, and then, in the royal alembic, its pure sap is concentrated
into a few drops of aroma. The price is excessive, but only at this
price can the most delicate perfumes be manufactured.

IV. Everyday Life In Court.

The king's occupations.--Rising in the morning, mass,
dinner, walks, hunting, supper, play, evening receptions.
--He is always on parade and in company.

An operation of this kind absorbs him who undertakes it as well as those
who undergo it. A nobility for useful purposes is not