Such men are fabricators of smooth speech; they have brought their gilding to put upon the rising pillars of the country, instead of strength to plant them firmly in their places and to spread the protecting roof.

Therefore, though their enemies drove on them ruthlessly, they succeeded in parrying the last sword-thrust, till they had completed even the gilding of the angel and trumpet on the summit of its lofty spire.

'Twould exceed gilding.

Mistress Katherine, with Janet by her side, was so blinded by the glare of lights and furbished gildings, she saw naught, but followed on up winding stairs, stepping twice upon each broad step; through corridors and alcoves and winding halls, and in her ears was the sound of men's and women's soft laughter, and she breathed the perfume of flowers, and inhaled as they passed some half-open door, the odour of paudre de rose and jasmine.

Instead of laughing, I sit silently reflecting how everything loses charms when one's own youth does not lend it gilding!

It is a mirror which no stone can crack, whose quicksilver will never wear off, whose gilding Nature continually repairs; no storms, no dust, can dim its surface ever fresha mirror in which all impurity presented to it sinks, swept and dusted by the sun's hazy brushthis the light dust-clothwhich retains no breath that is breathed on it, but sends its own to float as clouds high above its surface, and be reflected in its bosom still.

The great Lord Bacon, who treated these matters with the gravity of a philosopher, in his "Essays," gives a "brief model of a princely palace;" and in our times Napoleon is known to have expended many thousands in restoring the gilding of the palace at Versaillesalthough the extravagance of its founders paved the way for the events in which he distinguished himself.

He is one loves to hear the famous acts of citizens, whereof the gilding of the cross he counts the glory of this age, and the four prentices of London above all the nine[90] worthies.