"die the first nine hundred of a thousand deaths" I believe means that the writer was very fearful of the "great man". To wait in great fear of something is often referred to in western (and maybe eastern) writing as dying a thousand deaths. The fact that he died only the first nine hundred of a thousand means that he didn't have time to run through all his fears of the meeting. Perspective involves the angle that you look at things. Things farther away seem smaller. If you look at a long building from one end, the end farther away seems much smaller. Usually we don't notice the effect of perspective if the distances are small. For perspective to make a desk seem as if it was tapered (the back side actually being smaller than the front) the desk must have been very big.

Fdmaxey has given a great answer :) Just wondering, is this the Clive James novel? One more note: the paragraph is written in a very florid (flowery, semi-poetic) manner, so it's difficult to translate literally... get the words step back and think about what he *might* mean, and enjoy the ideas that come into your head. ;)