What would he do with a damask-covered table, or a gilded inkstand, or an upholstered window?
Starting with the idea that the intellect is all and the body naught but an adjunct or appendage, he will show that the former can live and thrive without any approval of the latter.

He will give the intellect all costly stimulus, and send the body supperless to bed.

Thomas Carlyle taken as a premise, this shabby room is the inevitable conclusion.

Behold the principle.
We have a poetic friend.

The backs of his books are scrolled and transfigured.