most
important acts of his divine career took place upon the mountains. It
was there that he was the most inspired;[2] it was there that he held
secret communion with the ancient prophets; and it was there that his
disciples witnessed his transfiguration.[3]

[Footnote 1: Jos., _B.J._, III. iii. 1. The horrible state to which
the country is reduced, especially near Lake Tiberias, ought not to
deceive us. These countries, now scorched, were formerly terrestrial
paradises. The baths of Tiberias, which are now a frightful abode,
were formerly the most beautiful places in Galilee (Jos., _Ant._,
XVIII. ii. 3.) Josephus (_Bell. Jud._, III. x. 8) extols the beautiful
trees of the plain of Gennesareth, where there is no longer a single
one. Anthony the Martyr, about the year 600, consequently fifty years
before the Mussulman invasion, still found Galilee covered with
delightful plantations, and compares its fertility to that of Egypt
(_Itin._, Sec. 5).]

[Footnote 2: Matt. v. 1, xiv. 23; Luke vi. 12.]

[Footnote 3: Matt. xvii. 1, and following; Mark ix. 1, and following;
Luke ix. 28, and following.]

This beautiful country has now become sad and gloomy through the
ever-impoverishing influence of Islamism. But still everything which
man cannot destroy breathes an air of freedom, mildness, and
tenderness, and at the time of Jesus it overflowed with happiness and
prosperity. The Galileans were considered energetic, brave, and
laborious.[1] If we except Tiberias, built by Antipas in honor of
Tiberius (about the year 15), in the Roman style,[2] Galilee had no
large towns. The country was, nevertheless, well peopled, covered with
small towns and large villages, and cultivated in all parts with
skill.[3] From the ruins which remain of its ancient splendor, we can
trace an agricultural people, no way gifted in art, caring little for
luxury, indifferent to the beauties of form and exclusively
idealistic. The country abounded in fresh streams and in fruits; the
large farms were shaded with vines and fig-trees; the gardens were
filled with trees bearing apples, walnuts, and pomegranates.[4] The
wine was excellent, if we may judge by that which the Jews still
obtain at Safed, and they drank much of it.[5] This contented and
easily satisfied life was not like the gross materialism of our
peasantry, the coarse pleasures of agricultural Normandy, or the heavy
mirth of the Flemish. It spiritualized itself in ethereal dreams--in a
kind o