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Article COLLECTANEA. ← Page 2 of 4 →
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Collectanea.
a torrent ; although , at the end of a dry autumn , it rolls gently in its bed , about 100 feet wide , presenting a sheet of water from two to three feet , deep , clear , limpid , and transparent ( so that pebbles may be counted at the bottom ) , and of that beautiful colour which enables water to reflect the deep blue firmament of Asia—nay , more blue itself even than the sky , which , in reflecting , it enriches . The caravan retired in silence from the village where we had sleptand ascended on
, the . western side of the lake , at a few paces from its waves , upon a rocky and sandy shore , with here and there tufts of rose laurel , and some shrubs with slight indented leaves , bearing a flower similar to our lilac . On our left a chain of peaked hills , black , barren , hollowed in profound ravines , and spotted , at various distances , by immense isolated volcanic stones , extended the whole length of the western coast ; and advancing in a sombre and naked promontory to nearlthe middle of the seahid
y , from us the city of Tiberias , at the extremity of the lake on the side of Lebanon . Not one of us spoke , so intently were our minds occupied with the scene before us , and the reflections to ivhich it gave birth . As to myself , no spot on earth ever spoke so forcibly or so deliciously to my heart . I have always loved to wander over the physical scenes inhabited by men I have knoivn , admired , loved , or revered , as well amongst the living as the dead The country which a great man has inhabited
. and preferred , during his passage on the earth , has always appeared to me the surest and most speaking relict of himself—a kind of material manifestation of his genius—a mute revelation of a portion of his soula living and sensible commentary on his life , actions , and thoughts . But it was no longer a great man or a great poet merely , whose favoured
residence here below I visited . It was the Man of men—the Man divine ; whose traces I had come to adore on the very spot whereon he sojourned—on the very waves that had borne him—on the hills on which he had sate—on the stones whereon he had reposed his head . He had , with his mortal eyes , seen this sea , these waves , these hills , these stones ; or rather this sea , these bills , these stones , had seen him . He had trodden a hundred times that path on which I now respectfully walkedhis feet had raised
; that same dust which mine now raised . During the three years of his Divine mission , he went and came , without ceasing , from Nazareth to Tiberias , from Tiberias to Jerusalem . He had sailed in the barks of the fishermen of the Sea of Galilee . He calmed its tempests , he walked on its waves , giving his hand to the apostle of little faith , like me—a celestial hand , of which I have greater need than he hadin the tempest of inionand of thoughts still more
, op , terrible ! The great and mysterious scene of the Gospel passed , in fact , almost entirely on this lake , the borders of this lake , and the mountains which surround and overlook it . Behold Emmaus , where he chose at hazard his disciples , amongst the meanest of mankind , to testify that the strength of his religion was in the doctrine itself , and not in its powerless organs . Behold Tiberias , where he appeared to St . Peter , and founded in three words the hierarchof his church . Behold
Capery naum—behold the mountain where he delivered the fine sermon of the mount—behold that on which he manifested the heavenly beatitudesbehold that from which he said , ' I have compassion on the people , ' and multiplied the loaves and fishes , even as his word creates and multiplies life in the soul—behold the gulph of the miraculous fishingbehold , in fine , the entire Gospel , with its affecting parables and its tender and delicious images , ivhich appeared to us such as they
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Collectanea.
a torrent ; although , at the end of a dry autumn , it rolls gently in its bed , about 100 feet wide , presenting a sheet of water from two to three feet , deep , clear , limpid , and transparent ( so that pebbles may be counted at the bottom ) , and of that beautiful colour which enables water to reflect the deep blue firmament of Asia—nay , more blue itself even than the sky , which , in reflecting , it enriches . The caravan retired in silence from the village where we had sleptand ascended on
, the . western side of the lake , at a few paces from its waves , upon a rocky and sandy shore , with here and there tufts of rose laurel , and some shrubs with slight indented leaves , bearing a flower similar to our lilac . On our left a chain of peaked hills , black , barren , hollowed in profound ravines , and spotted , at various distances , by immense isolated volcanic stones , extended the whole length of the western coast ; and advancing in a sombre and naked promontory to nearlthe middle of the seahid
y , from us the city of Tiberias , at the extremity of the lake on the side of Lebanon . Not one of us spoke , so intently were our minds occupied with the scene before us , and the reflections to ivhich it gave birth . As to myself , no spot on earth ever spoke so forcibly or so deliciously to my heart . I have always loved to wander over the physical scenes inhabited by men I have knoivn , admired , loved , or revered , as well amongst the living as the dead The country which a great man has inhabited
. and preferred , during his passage on the earth , has always appeared to me the surest and most speaking relict of himself—a kind of material manifestation of his genius—a mute revelation of a portion of his soula living and sensible commentary on his life , actions , and thoughts . But it was no longer a great man or a great poet merely , whose favoured
residence here below I visited . It was the Man of men—the Man divine ; whose traces I had come to adore on the very spot whereon he sojourned—on the very waves that had borne him—on the hills on which he had sate—on the stones whereon he had reposed his head . He had , with his mortal eyes , seen this sea , these waves , these hills , these stones ; or rather this sea , these bills , these stones , had seen him . He had trodden a hundred times that path on which I now respectfully walkedhis feet had raised
; that same dust which mine now raised . During the three years of his Divine mission , he went and came , without ceasing , from Nazareth to Tiberias , from Tiberias to Jerusalem . He had sailed in the barks of the fishermen of the Sea of Galilee . He calmed its tempests , he walked on its waves , giving his hand to the apostle of little faith , like me—a celestial hand , of which I have greater need than he hadin the tempest of inionand of thoughts still more
, op , terrible ! The great and mysterious scene of the Gospel passed , in fact , almost entirely on this lake , the borders of this lake , and the mountains which surround and overlook it . Behold Emmaus , where he chose at hazard his disciples , amongst the meanest of mankind , to testify that the strength of his religion was in the doctrine itself , and not in its powerless organs . Behold Tiberias , where he appeared to St . Peter , and founded in three words the hierarchof his church . Behold
Capery naum—behold the mountain where he delivered the fine sermon of the mount—behold that on which he manifested the heavenly beatitudesbehold that from which he said , ' I have compassion on the people , ' and multiplied the loaves and fishes , even as his word creates and multiplies life in the soul—behold the gulph of the miraculous fishingbehold , in fine , the entire Gospel , with its affecting parables and its tender and delicious images , ivhich appeared to us such as they