By my side,
on this parchment, lies the formulary of questions to be addressed by
Reburrus, when the curtain is withdrawn, to the Oracle of the Mysteries
of other Spheres.
'Before you, behold in those vases all that remains of my once well-
stocked cellars, and all that is provided for the palates of my guests!
We sit at the Banquet of Famine, and no coarser sustenance than
inspiring wine finds admittance at the Bacchanalian board. Yet, should
any among us, in his last moments, be feeble enough to pollute his lips
with nourishment alone worthy of the vermin of the earth, let him seek
the wretched and scanty table, type of the wretched and scanty food that
covers it, placed yonder in obscurity behind me. There will he find (in
all barely sufficient for one man's poorest meal) the last morsels of
the vilest nourishment left in the palace. For me, my resolution is
fixed--it is only the generous wine-cup that shall now approach my lips!
'Above me are the ten lamps, answering to the number of my friends here
assembled.
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