At the east and the west are other altars, and other beams of light stab the sacred twilight to the heart.

In every direction, 'white, mystic, wonderful', open out the ray-like courts, each pierced through by a single arrow of light that serves to illumine its lofty silence and dimly to reveal the monuments of the dead.

{Endnote 15} Overcome at so awe-inspiring a sight, the vast loveliness of which thrills the nerves like a glance from beauty's eyes, you turn to the central golden altar, in the midst of which, though you cannot see it now, there burns a pale but steady flame crowned with curls of faint blue smoke.

It is of marble overlaid with pure gold, in shape round like the sun, four feet in height, and thirty-six in circumference.

Here also, hinged to the foundations of the altar, are twelve petals of beaten gold.