The Delectable Mountains by Arthur Willis Colton

In those days I knew Hamilton only by the light in the south; for in Hagar men said, "That light in the south is Hamilton," as they would say, "The sunrise in the east, the sunset in the west, the aurora in the north," illuminations that were native in their places. Hamilton was a yellow glimmer on clear nights, and on cloudy nights a larger glow. It crouched low in the sky, pale, secret, enticing.

Also I knew that Hamilton was twenty miles away, like Sheridan's ride. How great and full of palaces and splendors that must be which shone so far! How golden its streets, and jewelled its gates, like the Celestial City, which is described in Revelations and "The Progress" in an unmistakable manner, if not as one would wish in the matter of some details. Yet to speak justly, "The Progress" was considered a passable good story, though not up to the "Arabian Nights"; and Revelations had its points, though any one could see the writer was mixed in his mind, and upset probably by the oddness of his adventures, and rather stumped how to relate them plainly.