DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61893#0125
Ch. I.
THROUGH ITALY.
97
precipitated from above, or that the start of a
horse purposely alarmed, might hurl him into
the abyss below, and give the ruffian a safe
opportunity of preying upon his plunder. When
in such situations the traveller reflects upon his
security, and recollects that these mountains, so
savage, and so well adapted to the purposes of
murderers and of banditti, have not in the
memory of man, been stained by human blood,
he ought to do justice to the cause, and gratefully
acknowledge the beneficent influence of reli-
gion. Impressed with these reflections, he will
behold with indulgence, perhaps even with
interest, the crosses which frequently mark the
brow of a precipice, and the little chapels
hollowed out of the rock where the road is
narrowest: he will consider them as so many
pledges of security, and rest assyred, that as
long as the pious mountaineer continues to
adore the* * Good, Shepherd, and to beg the
* Pastor bonus, Mater dolorosa; such are the titles
often inscribed over those rustic temples; sometimes a
whole sentence is subjoined, as, Pastor bonus qui animam
suam dat pro ovibus suis.* Under a crucifix on the brow of
a tremendous crag, I observed some lines taien from the
Dies Tree, a funeral hymn, which, though disfigured by
* St.John, x. 11,
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THROUGH ITALY.
97
precipitated from above, or that the start of a
horse purposely alarmed, might hurl him into
the abyss below, and give the ruffian a safe
opportunity of preying upon his plunder. When
in such situations the traveller reflects upon his
security, and recollects that these mountains, so
savage, and so well adapted to the purposes of
murderers and of banditti, have not in the
memory of man, been stained by human blood,
he ought to do justice to the cause, and gratefully
acknowledge the beneficent influence of reli-
gion. Impressed with these reflections, he will
behold with indulgence, perhaps even with
interest, the crosses which frequently mark the
brow of a precipice, and the little chapels
hollowed out of the rock where the road is
narrowest: he will consider them as so many
pledges of security, and rest assyred, that as
long as the pious mountaineer continues to
adore the* * Good, Shepherd, and to beg the
* Pastor bonus, Mater dolorosa; such are the titles
often inscribed over those rustic temples; sometimes a
whole sentence is subjoined, as, Pastor bonus qui animam
suam dat pro ovibus suis.* Under a crucifix on the brow of
a tremendous crag, I observed some lines taien from the
Dies Tree, a funeral hymn, which, though disfigured by
* St.John, x. 11,
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