DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11448#0444
134
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap xiii
Destiny incarnate. That fierce, dark eye, and noble brow; that
medallic profile, that has been transmitted unimpaired through a
thousand generations and a thousand climates ; these are Nature's
own illustrations, and vindicate old history.
Here I take leave of Palestine, the general appearance of
which I may sum up in the words of the noble authoress of
" Gideon." " A country, naturally luxurious, was become bar-
ren as the desert, for the labours of the husbandman were vain:
fear reigned in every heart; the lands either remained unculti-
vated, or the rich produce was ravished by the merciless hands
of its conquerors. A melancholy spectacle presents itself to the
traveller's eye; vineyards trampled by unhallowed feet • corn-
fields destroyed or plundered by those who had not sown them,
while their owners, in the slothfulness of despair, looked on in
passive silence: here and there, one bolder than the rest ventures
to till the ground for the relief of a starving family, but he reaps
not the fruit of his labours. The heathen, hovering like vultures
over their prey, destroy the increase of the earth, and leave no
sustenance for man or beast."
The dominion of the Porte is the form which the Curse de-
nounced against Israel and his Land assumes at present. It in-
volves all others.
After Jerusalem, the pilgrimage of the Holy Land has lost its
zest; I will not task the reader's patience further on this theme.
THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS.
[chap xiii
Destiny incarnate. That fierce, dark eye, and noble brow; that
medallic profile, that has been transmitted unimpaired through a
thousand generations and a thousand climates ; these are Nature's
own illustrations, and vindicate old history.
Here I take leave of Palestine, the general appearance of
which I may sum up in the words of the noble authoress of
" Gideon." " A country, naturally luxurious, was become bar-
ren as the desert, for the labours of the husbandman were vain:
fear reigned in every heart; the lands either remained unculti-
vated, or the rich produce was ravished by the merciless hands
of its conquerors. A melancholy spectacle presents itself to the
traveller's eye; vineyards trampled by unhallowed feet • corn-
fields destroyed or plundered by those who had not sown them,
while their owners, in the slothfulness of despair, looked on in
passive silence: here and there, one bolder than the rest ventures
to till the ground for the relief of a starving family, but he reaps
not the fruit of his labours. The heathen, hovering like vultures
over their prey, destroy the increase of the earth, and leave no
sustenance for man or beast."
The dominion of the Porte is the form which the Curse de-
nounced against Israel and his Land assumes at present. It in-
volves all others.
After Jerusalem, the pilgrimage of the Holy Land has lost its
zest; I will not task the reader's patience further on this theme.