There have been many ages when the dense gloom of a heartless immorality seemed to settle down with unusual weight; there have been many places where, under the gaslight of an artificial system, vice has seemed to acquire an unusual audacity; but never probably was there any age or any place where the worst forms of wickedness were practiced with a more unblushing effrontery than in the city of Rome under the government of the Caesars.

"Talk not," says the shade of Achilles to Ulysses in the Odyssey, "'Talk not of reigning in this dolorous gloom, Nor think vain lies,' he cried, 'can ease my doom.

The flying foxes shot from tree to tree, and moths as big as sparrows whirred about the trunks, one moment black against the glare beyond, and vanishing the next, like imps of darkness, into their native gloom.

The marriage feast at Ringstetten was not as bright and happy as such occasions usually are, for a veil of gloom seemed to rest over the company.

When the dread shadow of sickness is o'er me, I see thee, a lassie all brightness and bloom; Still, still through thy tears strewing blossoms before me, Still watching beside me through silence and gloom.

III.Days of Gloom To Lord Masterton Frank related the story of how he had been wounded in the early part of the campaign and had been compelled to hand over the command of his regiment to his brother.

Both to Henry and to the girl these were days of gloom, but Frank, on the other hand, was strangely happy and content.

The rest, whose minds have no impression but the present moment, are either corroded by malignant passions, or sit steeped in the gloom of perpetual vacancy.

The inhabitants sit by dull fires during this season, immersed in furs, and endeavor to doze through the tedious gloom.

" This news spread a gloom over the little party, for they could not contemplate a separation from their kind friends without feelings of deep regret, and there were more tears than smiles in their usually bright eyes.

She gave Nick a cool bow when she was ready to go, and left him plunged in gloom, but stubbornly unrepentant.

" "I've got more than I know what to do with, good or bad," said Nick, drowned in gloom.

Perhaps the ray of greatest encouragement which lightened the gloom of this depressing period was the following letter from Professor Henry, dated February 24, 1842:

There was the token of his first artistic success appearing to him out of the gloom as the harbinger of another success which he hoped would also soon emerge from behind the lowering clouds.

It can shed a mellow lustre on dingy rooms, frayed carpets, and shabby furniture; nay, I have seen its tender rays impart a rare and spiritual beauty to an old, worn, long-loved face; but on the other hand, when this magic light is quenched, or even temporarily shaded, not all the illuminations of a royal birthday are brilliant enough to dispel the gloom its absence leaves about the heart.

We both stopped dead and remained, for a couple of seconds, staring into the gloom, from whence the first sound had come; then Thorndyke darted diagonally across the road at a swift run

When I reached the swamp and entered its darkened recesses, the gloom and stillness was indeed fearful; my horse started at every rustling leaf or crackling brush, until I attempted to pass a dense thicket, when I was started by the sharp crack of a rifle, and a bullet whizzed past me, close to my ear!

These are the trivial details which may be remembered and described, but the general effect produced by the darkness, the silence, the vast spaces, the innumerable forms, the vaulted roofs, the pillars and galleries melting away in the gloom like the long-drawn aisles of a cathedral, may be recalled but not communicated.

" The gloom of Perris returned.

Meantime the dawn grew slowly in the east but even when the mountains were huge and black against flaming colors of the horizon sky, there was no breaking of Marianne's gloom.

But we came into it as the car stopped; it was a sort of oasis of light in an inky desert of surrounding gloom.

" She pushed open the greasy, shining leather door, passed into the interior, and stood for a moment in the incense-laden gloom of the nave.

Ultimately the State is the transmitter of all culture, and is therefore entitled to claim all the powers of the individual for itself.[A] These ideas, which led us out of the deepest gloom to the sunlit heights of success, must remain our pole-star at an epoch which in many respects can be compared with the opening years of the last century.

Towards the end of the second year Buzzby began to shake his head despondingly; and as the third drew to a close, the expression of gloom never left his honest, weather-beaten face.

In the gray gloom he saw the outline of his horse grazing alone.