hich
towers above Megiddo; the mountains of the country of Shechem, with
their holy places of the patriarchal age; the hills of Gilboa, the
small, picturesque group to which are attached the graceful or
terrible recollections of Shunem and of Endor; and Tabor, with its
beautiful rounded form, which antiquity compared to a bosom. Through a
depression between the mountains of Shunem and Tabor are seen the
valley of the Jordan and the high plains of Peraea, which form a
continuous line from the eastern side. On the north, the mountains of
Safed, in inclining toward the sea conceal St. Jean d'Acre, but permit
the Gulf of Khaifa to be distinguished. Such was the horizon of Jesus.
This enchanted circle, cradle of the kingdom of God, was for years his
world. Even in his later life he departed but little beyond the
familial limits of his childhood. For yonder, northward, a glimpse is
caught, almost on the flank of Hermon, of Caesarea-Philippi, his
furthest point of advance into the Gentile world; and here southward,
the more sombre aspect of these Samaritan hills foreshadows the
dreariness of Judea beyond, parched as by a scorching wind of
desolation and death.

If the world, remaining Christian, but attaining to a better idea of
the esteem in which the origin of its religion should be held, should
ever wish to replace by authentic holy places the mean and apocryphal
sanctuaries to which the piety of dark ages attached itself, it is
upon this height of Nazareth that it will rebuild its temple. There,
at the birthplace of Christianity, and in the centre of the actions of
its Founder, the great church ought to be raised in which all
Christians may worship. There, also, on this spot where sleep Joseph,
the carpenter, and thousands of forgotten Nazarenes who never passed
beyond the horizon of their valley, would be a better station than any
in the world beside for the philosopher to contemplate the course of
human affairs, to console himself for their uncertainty, and to
reassure himself as to the Divine end which the world pursues through
countless falterings, and in spite of the universal vanity.

CHAPTER III.

EDUCATION OF JESUS.

This aspect of Nature, at once smiling and grand, was the whole
education of Jesus. He learned to read and to write,[1] doubtless,
according to the Eastern method, which consisted in putting in the
hands of the child a book, which he repeated in cadence with his
little comrades, until he