DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0101
84 THE ISLES AND SHRINES OF GREECE
that the poet was describing a region more or less
familiar.
Homer and the New Testament are a good way
apart, but they are both included in the marvellous
unity of the Greek language. If I learned the mean-
ing of one word of Homer, standing on the hill of
Zante, I felt anew the force of a verse in the New
Testament. It was the doxology to the Lord's Prayer,
— " And Thine be the kingdom and the power and
the glory." It was the power that first impressed me.
What an immeasurable force had shaken this island
to its foundation! The prostrate villages, the shat-
tered houses in the city below, were the melancholy
proof. There is something terrible in the conception
and experience of an energy which in a few sec-
onds can turn a village into a heap of ruins. Yet,
awful as are the destructive forces of Nature, they
are not so grand as those which arc constructive.
What mighty Power reared those lofty mountains set
in the bosom of the sea! Majestic masonry whose
architect was the Eternal! In a thunder-storm or an
earthquake we are startled by the revelation of amaz-
ing power; but what a revelation of the silent energy
of Nature is made to us all the time ! It was mani-
fest in the little flower, in the tender grain growing at
my feet, in the swell of the tide, the breath of the
wind and the glare of the sun. Silently the shadows
moved; but what an unspeakable Energy moved
them ! — the Power that turns the world on its axis
and sends it silently whirling on its pathway among
the stars. Compared with this silent energy of
light and shadow, the Zante earthquake seemed
insignificant.
that the poet was describing a region more or less
familiar.
Homer and the New Testament are a good way
apart, but they are both included in the marvellous
unity of the Greek language. If I learned the mean-
ing of one word of Homer, standing on the hill of
Zante, I felt anew the force of a verse in the New
Testament. It was the doxology to the Lord's Prayer,
— " And Thine be the kingdom and the power and
the glory." It was the power that first impressed me.
What an immeasurable force had shaken this island
to its foundation! The prostrate villages, the shat-
tered houses in the city below, were the melancholy
proof. There is something terrible in the conception
and experience of an energy which in a few sec-
onds can turn a village into a heap of ruins. Yet,
awful as are the destructive forces of Nature, they
are not so grand as those which arc constructive.
What mighty Power reared those lofty mountains set
in the bosom of the sea! Majestic masonry whose
architect was the Eternal! In a thunder-storm or an
earthquake we are startled by the revelation of amaz-
ing power; but what a revelation of the silent energy
of Nature is made to us all the time ! It was mani-
fest in the little flower, in the tender grain growing at
my feet, in the swell of the tide, the breath of the
wind and the glare of the sun. Silently the shadows
moved; but what an unspeakable Energy moved
them ! — the Power that turns the world on its axis
and sends it silently whirling on its pathway among
the stars. Compared with this silent energy of
light and shadow, the Zante earthquake seemed
insignificant.