forming a long and distinct arch of flame, so exact and regular, that it seemed to proceed from the skill and effort of some powerful demon, who had made it, as it were, a fiery arbor for his kind.  The whole country was visible to an astonishing distance, and overhead, the evening sky, into which the up-rushing pyramids seemed to pass, looked as if it had caught the conflagration, and was one red mass of glowing and burning copper.  Around the house and premises the eye could distinguish a pin; but the strong light was so fearfully red that the deep tinge it communicated to the earth seemed like blood, and made it appear as if it had been sprinkled with it.

It is impossible to look upon a large and extensive conflagration without feeling the mind filled with imagery and comparisons, drawn from moral and actual life.  Here, for instance, is a tyrant, in the unrestrained exercise of his power—­he now has his enemy in his grip, and hear how he exults; listen to the mirthful and crackling laughter with which the fiendish despot rejoices, as he gains the victory; mark the diabolical gambols with which he sports, and the demon glee with which he performs his capricious but frightful exultations.  But the tyrant, after all, will become exhausted—­his strength and power will fail him; he will destroy his own subjects; he will become feeble, and when he has nothing further on which to exercise his power, he will, like many another tyrant before him, sink, and be lost in the ruin he has made.

Again:  Would you behold Industry?  Here have its terrible spirits been appointed their tasks.  Observe the energy, the activity, the persevering fury with which they discharge their separate duties.  See how that eldest son of Apollyon, with the appetite of hell, licks into his burning maw every thing that comes in contact with his tongue of fire.  What quickness of execution, and how rapidly they pass from place to place! how they run about in quest of employment! how diligently and effectually they search every nook and corner, lest anything might escape them!  Mark the activity with which that strong fellow leaps across, from beam to beam, seizing upon each as he goes.  A different task has been assigned to another:  he attacks the rafters of the roof—­he fails at first, but, like the constrictor, he first licks over his victim before he destroys it—­bravo!—­he is at it again—­it gives way—­he is upon it, and about it; and now his difficulties are over—­the red wood glows, splits and crackles, and flies off in angry flakes, in order to become a minister to its active and devouring master.  See! observe!  What business—­what a coil and turmoil of industry!  Every flame at work—­no idle hand here—­no lazy lounger reposing.  No, no—­the industry of a hive of bees is nothing to this.  Running up—­running down—­running in all directions:  now they unite together to accomplish some general task, and again disperse themselves to perform their individual appointments.