"I am an old man," said he, "and can no
longer rest my bones on stone couches, and these damp walls require
covering."
He had baths too constructed, and provided with all kinds of
perfumes and aromatic oils: "For a bath," said he, "is necessary to
counteract the rigidity of age, and to restore freshness and
suppleness to the frame withered by study."
He caused the apartments to be hung with innumerable silver and
crystal lamps, which he filled with a fragrant oil, prepared according
to a receipt discovered by him in the tombs of Egypt. This oil was
perpetual in its nature, and diffused a soft radiance like the
tempered light of day. "The light of the sun," said he, "is too garish
and violent for the eyes of an old man, and the light of the lamp is
more congenial to the studies of a philosopher."
The treasurer of King Aben Habuz groaned at the sums daily
demanded to fit up this hermitage, and he carried his complaints to
the king. The royal word, however, had been given; Aben Habuz shrugged
his shoulders: "We must have patience," said he, "this old man has
taken his idea of a philosophic retreat from the interior of the
pyramids, and of the vast ruins of Egypt; but all things have an
end, and so will the furnishing of his cavern."
The king was in the right; the hermitage was at length complete, and
formed a sumptuous subterranean palace. The astrologer expressed
himself perfectly content, and, shutting himself up, remained for
three whole days buried in study.
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