George Jones

“ At each angle you perceive towers of elaborate architecture, crowned with turrets or pinnacles, where, gazing downward, the senses recoil with horror from the frightful depth.
But this is only the commencement of the grandeur of this wonderful Temple. Within this cloister is an open court, running also quite around; it is paved with marble, and its level is broken by a few steps of ascent, also passing along the whole circuit of the court. This is the court of the Gentiles; and inscriptions on columns are seen at intervals, forbidding this class of people to advance nearer to the Temple. ”

“ Immediately east of the city, and separated from it by a narrow valley or ravine, was a mountain large enough to command our respect by its vastness, and yet not too large for gracefulness and beauty. I knew it at once to be the Mount of Olives. It has three summits, one in the centre and one at each extremity; they are of nearly equal height, and when viewed from the city present for their outline a gentle and beautiful curve. ”

“ Our joy at finding all obstacles removed, and that we were actually going to visit Jerusalem, was great indeed. The visit had been a subject of pleasing anticipation from the beginning of the cruise, and a disappointment here would have cast a damp upon all our other pleasures. But here we were at last, ashore at Jaffa, mounted and ready to be off; every face cheerful, and our hearts swelling with expected enjoyment. We wound through the low bazaar, and then slipping and stumbling over the execrable pavement of the gateway, found ourselves out in the country, and fairly on our way. ”

“ From our elevated ground we trace the courses of the numerous canals, intersecting the wide plain beneath; yonder is Cairo, a white house here and there giving a mottled appearance to the reddish mass of edifices; there goes the silvery river, in gentle and graceful curves; and here, on our left, stretches off towards it a low ridge or causeway, supposed by some to have been made for transporting stone for the Pyramids from the river, but which was more probably formed when this region was robbed to supply Cairo with building materials. ”

“ Yes, this is a plain account of a visit to Pompeii. How greatly obliged, then, are the public, to those writers who enable them to travel without the vexations of travel; and to grow sentimental or to grow wise, without growing—hungry; for I will warrant to every man by the time he gets from Pompeii to Naples, not only a good covering of dust, but a famous appetite.
And yet, I suppose the reader is scolding because I have not already set him down quietly among the ruins of Balbec, forgetting that we ourselves had yet a walk of two miles through the hot sun before we could reach them. ”

“ Towering aloft, is many a grave but magnificent temple; there stretches the deep shadowed and interminable colonade; here frowns the massive tower for defence; and there lies concealed the luxurious bower of the gay. Dwellings of the simple and the astute, the noble and [42] the lowly serf stretch around, far as the eye can reach, and countless multitudes flock along thy streets; while here, closer to us, in the city of mummies, lie an equally countless number in the searments of the grave. City of many centuries and of stately grandeur, we yield thee the reverence—but what noise is that? ”

“ Sad and humbled people! They come hither from the ends of the earth, and, excluded from the Holy Mountain, sit down in the dust without its walls to mourn over their desolations, and, cry, “Lord, how long, how long?” And the mark that is set upon them follows them, even in death. The Moslems occupy the slope down into the valley of Jehoshaphat for their own burying-place; and the Jews, desirous of having the shadows of Moriah fall upon their graves, have to take the opposite side of the valley along the slopes of the Mount of Olives. ”

“ What a frame-work is there for the city of Jerusalem! See the villages, embosomed in gardens of deep verdure, sprinkled thickly over all the plains, which, ascending as they retire from the city, expose every object to our view. Here the houses stand in thick clusters, there they straggle along amid the overhanging trees; and the whole immense extent of country seems only a continuation of the city in a more cheerful form. ”

“ It was with the most sincere pleasure that we learned that Commodore Patterson had decided in favor of this excursion. Dim land of embalmed and faded greatness, that, from the searments of the tomb, dost murmur to us in solemn and mystic language, we should see thee then! we should stand on the banks of the Nile, where even Nature herself is shrouded in unusual obscurity: we should look down from the summits of the Pyramids, those monuments on which all ages have gazed with wonder, and where they have speculated in vain. ”

“ I am not a politician, but I hope I am a philanthropist; and, next to religion, I love my country and its institutions, for I believe that in them is the regenerating principle that is going to awaken and vivify the world. These plains that we have just been passing over, abounding in a rich soil and under a prolific sky, why are they not cultivated? But they will be cultivated, and this people here will be intelligent and intellectual: the mind will rouse up, and claim its high pre-eminence; woman will be elevated to her proper, lofty sphere; brute force will yield to moral power ”

“ One room, as we entered, presented a marble fountain in the centre, in which were seven jets; and looking through the shower of diamonds that broke from them, and fell with an unceasing murmur into the reservoir, we saw, at the further end of the chamber, a cascade of six or seven feet in height, the water of which was broken up, and fell amid sculptured marble cut into a variety of fanciful forms.
In the gentleman’s receiving rooms of the Damascus palaces is a curious ornament. A few feet below the ceiling is a broad cornice, supported by Saracenic sculptures running quite around the room ”

“ Mount Calvary! the atmosphere does not more closely invest our globe, and enter into and support our systems, than does the comfort that flows from thy bloody cross encircle, and penetrate, and support our souls. Without it we gasp and perish. Mysterious! that to such a bloody scene we should have to resort for consolation. Wonderful religion, that teaches us that by the deep and awful humiliation of God we are elevated to glory ”

“ Cast your eye downwards, and let it range over the immense masses of chiselled rocks, wrought into regular shape, enriched with architectural device, and piled on each other till the senses are pained in endeavoring to take in the colossal fabric of more than seven hundred feet in height; glance at the huge mouldings into which the wall swells at its termination; mark the high colonnades of pure showy marble, that are ranged along the edge of this mighty structure; see within this the marble tesselated pavement, ascending by flights of steps, and encircling the mountain ”

“ At the summit, at a spot commanding a view of all the plain of Sharon and the sea beyond, we stopped in an olive grove for dinner. This was near the village of the ex-robber, prince Aboo Ghoosh; but a change has come over the country under the sovereignty of Mohammed Ali, for the people did not even come to look at us.
Descending again, we passed, at the bottom of a valley, a village, on the borders of which is a large church belonging to the time of the crusades. A more desolate scene than presented itself as we wound up the hills beyond this village cannot be easily imagined. ”

“ The vestibule, being at right angles with the body of the edifice, projects thirty-six feet on either side. The stone employed here appears to be a pure white marble, for those portions of the building which are not covered with plates of gold are of dazzling whiteness, so as to appear at a distance like a mountain covered with snow.
The whole mass, the foundation walls, the porticoes, the Temple, are indeed a wonderful structure; and with the sacred and solemn associations connected with them, form an object of surpassing interest and grandeur. ”

“ Yearning ever after the holy land of his forefathers, the Jew, as life begins to wear out, often collects together his earnings, and rouses up his sinking strength to carry him hither, that he may die in Jerusalem, and have his bones laid beneath the mountain of the ancient temple. They are not permitted to set foot within the enclosure of Mount Moriah, but in pleasant weather they may be seen just without the outer wall, seated on the ground, and reading in their devotional books; and even for this privilege they have to pay the Turkish governor. ”

“ And now glance your eye along these roads that [270] come winding over the hills by which Jerusalem is encircled. See! The whole country seems awakened into an intensity of life and animation. It is the Passover. Far off as the eye can reach, the great highways and the narrow paths are covered with masses of living beings, thousands upon thousands pouring onwards, and still succeeded by other thousands, till it seems as if the whole habitable globe was sending its inhabitants and its tribute to this sacred city. ”

“ The peculiar excellence of the spot where Damascus is situated is owing to the Barraday, a rapid stream, which here breaks out from the mountain ravines; and by numerous artificial as well as natural channels, is made to spread over the plain; it waters the whole extent of the gardens, and when this is done, the little of it that is left proceeds on southwardly through the plain, but amid the arid sands it soon dwindles away and disappears. The stretch of gardens is about nine miles in diameter, and, except the space occupied by the city, is one unbroken extent of the deepest verdure. ”

“ A plain countryman came up to the Feast of Tabernacles four years ago while the country was prosperous and at peace; and while engaged in the duties of this occasion became suddenly a changed man, and before the multitudes cried aloud, “A voice from the east, a voice from the west, a voice from the four winds, a voice against Jerusalem and the Holy House, a voice [277] against the bridegrooms and the brides, and a voice against this whole people!” A dead weight of fear has ever since lain upon the spirits of the inhabitants, crushing the timid, and oppressing even the boldest. ”

“ Men there are at peace with each other. Over this well-peopled but silent city of the dead, we see the small Pyramids of Sakhara: and further down, [59] at a distance of six or eight miles, arise the stupendous structures, the Pyramids of Ghizeh. I have never looked at them without a feeling of awe.
Between us and them, on the western bank of the river, is the little village of Ghizeh, from which they take their modern name; and still nearer to us, on the eastern bank, is the village of Old Cairo, now worthy of note only as the port for boats from upper Egypt. ”

“ And now look at them; they turn heels over head, and making a wheel of their extended arms and legs, whirl along by your side: they make music for you by chuckling their chin with the fist; they pick up the dust, and, rubbing it all over their faces, then grin and wriggle, and look like so many imps escaped up from the flames of Vesuvius: and you try in vain to bribe them to stay behind by tossing them some money. They pick it up, and follow you for more. At last you are at the gate of Pompeii, and your carriage comes to a halt ”

“ This room is not very large, its dimensions being altogether about fifteen feet by twenty-five; and the light is permitted to enter only in sufficient quantity to make objects distinct. A short distance within the door is a circular marble fountain, from the centre of which a few streaks of water ascend up into the air, and breaking at the top, fall in a constant shower of gems, creating a delightful coolness, and a noise just sufficient to lull one to repose. ”

“ The traveller to the present city, at least the Protestant traveller, is excessively annoyed at every step with traditions in which he cannot believe, and with having localities pointed out in which he can place no confidence whatever; and the effect is bad in a great many ways. It not only disturbs sadly the feelings with which he would wish to walk over the grounds of Jerusalem, but, sickened and disgusted, he is apt to run into the opposite extreme of incredulity, and reject even where there is proper grounds for belief. ”

“ The house stands within a large enclosure, and has in front a court surrounded by immense walnut trees intermingled with the orange and lemon, overhanging a large fountain. Directly under the windows in the rear rushes the Barraday, here undivided, and a full rapid stream of the clearest water. The grounds around the dwelling are laid out in good taste, and are covered by an exuberance of foliage, some of the trees being of prodigious magnitude. ”

“ If at our day the idea of the bare possibility of visiting Mount Calvary sends a thrill through the whole system, with what feelings must they have regarded the place when the memory of this event was fresh among the Christians, and when they were able to converse with those who had themselves witnessed the ignominious death of their Lord and Saviour. It does not appear to me at all probable that such a place would be forgotten; and we have a proof of the respect in which it was held, in the fact that Hadrian erected on the sepulchre a statue to Jupiter, and one to Venus on Mount Calvary. ”

“ Europe is disgorging upon our land the inmates of her prisons, and there will be crime: the poor, the ignorant, and the oppressed of her population find refuge here, and abundance; and, in the wild joy at their newly-acquired comforts and their freedom, they may run into riots and disorders; but nowhere in the world is so much virtue to be found as amid our population; and virtue is happiness. We are a nation but of yesterday; and our railroads, and canals, and steam-boats, and commerce, are already a subject of astonishment ”