If they could only have cast their minds further back, perhaps they might have recalled a lost paradise: green and yellow meadows stirred by tender winds, umbrageous forests and emerald groves, glass - blue mountain peaks
melting into
azure skies, glittering bays whose diamond waters break in jade and turquoise surges on sands like powdered alabaster — where the rain falls gently, and is transformed by the setting sun into shimmering curtains of gold — where, beyond verdant valleys and limestone caves, lies a palace filled with every delight the senses can endure, enclosing garden courtyards where crystal fountains splash in porphyry basins, intoxicating perfumes hang upon the breezes, undying flowers of every hue shine out amid the greenery's blue shadows...