ended and varied
culture always weakens. Happily, he was also ignorant of the grotesque
scholasticism which was taught at Jerusalem, and which was soon to
constitute the Talmud. The reading of the books of the Old Testament
made a deep impression on him, especially the book of Daniel, and the
religious poetry of the Psalms was in marvellous accordance with his
lyrical soul, and all his life was his sustenance and support. That he
had no knowledge of the general state of the world is evident from every
feature of his most authentic discourses, and he never conceived of
aristocratic society, save as a young villager who sees the world
through the prism of his simplicity. Although born at a time when the
principles of positive science had already been proclaimed, he lived in
entirely supernatural ideas. To him the marvellous was not the
exceptional but the normal statf of things, since to him the whole
course of things was the result of the free-will of the Deity. This led
to a profound conception of the close relations of man with God.

_IDYLLIC SURROUNDINGS_

A mighty dream haunted the Jewish people for centuries, constantly
renewing its youth. Judaea believed that she possessed divine promises
of a boundless future. In combination with the belief in the Messiah and
the doctrine of an approaching renewal of all things, the dogma of the
resurrection had emerged and produced a great fermentation from one end
of the Jewish world to the other. Jesus, as soon as he had any thought
of his own, entered into the burning atmosphere created in Palestine by
these ideas, and his soul was soon filled with them. A beautiful natural
environment imprinted a charming and idyllic character on all the dreams
of Galilee. During the months of March and April that green, shady,
smiling land is a carpet of flowers of an incomparable variety of
colours. The animals are small and extremely gentle--delicate and
playful turtle-doves, blackbirds so light that they rest on a blade of
grass without bending it, tufted larks which almost venture under the
feet of the traveller, little river-tortoises with mild bright eyes,
storks of gravely modest mien, which, casting aside all timidity, allow
men to come quite near them, and indeed seem to invite his approach. In
no country in the world do the mountains extend with more harmonious
outlines, or inspire higher thought. Jesus seems to have had an especial
love for them. The most important events of