almost beautiful. Below, was the broad, level plain of Esdraelon,

checkered with fields like a chess-board, and full as smooth and level,

seemingly; dotted about its borders with white, compact villages, and

faintly penciled, far and near, with the curving lines of roads and

trails. When it is robed in the fresh verdure of spring, it must form a

charming picture, even by itself. Skirting its southern border rises

"Little Hermon," over whose summit a glimpse of Gilboa is caught. Nain,

famous for the raising of the widow's son, and Endor, as famous for the

performances of her witch are in view. To the eastward lies the Valley

of the Jordan and beyond it the mountains of Gilead. Westward is Mount

Carmel. Hermon in the north--the table-lands of Bashan--Safed, the holy

city, gleaming white upon a tall spur of the mountains of Lebanon

--a steel-blue corner of the Sea of Galilee--saddle-peaked Hattin,

traditional "Mount of Beatitudes" and mute witness brave fights of the

Crusading host for Holy Cross--these fill up the picture.

To glance at the salient features of this landscape through the

picturesque framework of a ragged and ruined stone window--arch of the

time of Christ, thus hiding from sight all that is unattractive, is to

secure to yourself a pleasure worth climbing the mountain to enjoy. One

must stand on his head to get the best effect in a fine sunset, and set a

landscape in a bold, strong framework that is very close at hand, to

bring out all its beauty. One learns this latter truth never more to

forget it, in that mimic land of enchantment, the wonderful garden of my

lord the Count Pallavicini, near Genoa. You go wandering for hours among

hills and wooded glens, artfully contrived to leave the impression that

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The Innocents Abroad