e religious
faith of his father, was filled with a loftier feeling than that
youthful glow and exhilaration which his companions felt. Had he the
power, he would like to have poured out his soul in fervid verse about
the grandeur, the indescribable beauty of Nature in her wildest and most
prolific mood. But being as yet a boy, in whom the poetic instinct and
feeling is strong, he said to his father, one day, as the scenery was
unusually picturesque:

"Hast thou ever, my father, during these days of travel over these great
mountain-tops, thought that Palestine, the promised land, must be
something like this? The land flowing with milk and honey. Why, honey
is already plentiful here--we need but the cows to furnish milk; but if
milk means the richness of earth, the never-dying fertility of the soil,
look but once on this view now before us, and tell me, think you
Palestine can be richer than this? Why, I feel--I do not exactly know
what--but it is something that if I have never been good or thankful to
Allah for his goodness to men, that I could be good for ever in future.
Do you understand this feeling, father Amer, or is it singular in me?"

"No, it is not singular, my dear son; but go on, tell me what is in thy
mind," replied Sheikh Amer, himself gazing on the revealed might of
Nature.

"I have also a feeling--as if I knew it for the first time--that this
earth is large, very large, that it is immense, without limit or
boundary, and that, consequently, God, who made all this, must be truly
great. With the mountain air which I now inhale I seem to have imbibed
something purer, more subtle; yet that thing is capable of giving me
more expansion. Why was it that, before coming to these mountains, I
never thought upon this subject? Why was it that, before to-day, I had
no one thought of what might happen to-morrow, beyond what might happen
to our caravan, or beyond what I should see on the road? Yet at this
moment, though my eyes seem to rest upon this view of loveliness, I know
I do not look upon its details or any particular object, but they seem
to drink it all with one look, and more, infinitely more, than is
contained in the area before me. I seem to have eyes in my mind which
have a keener sight, more extended vision, greater power than the eyes
of my head, which can see so far, and no farther. Yet to the sight of
the inner eyes, which see not, yet can see a thousand times vaster
scene, a thousand times