Not only to the Christian, nor to the classic
scholar, but to every man to whom the progress of his race from
barbarism toward humanity is dear, should the Mediterranean Sea be
one of the most august and precious objects on this globe; and the
first sight of it should inspire reverence and delight, as of coming
home--home to a rich inheritance in which he has long believed by
hearsay, but which he sees at last with his own mortal corporal eyes.
Exceedingly beautiful is that first view of the sea from Cette,
though altogether different in character from the views of the
Mediterranean which are common in every gallery of pictures. There
is nothing to remind one of Claude, or Vernet, or Stanfield. No
mountain-ranges far aloft, no cliffs toppling into the water, with
convents and bastides perched on their crags; and seaports, with
their land-locked harbours, and quaint lighthouses, nestling on the
brink. That scenery begins on the other side of the Rhone mouth, and
continues, I believe, almost without interruption, to the shores of
Southern Palestine, one girdle of perpetual beauty.
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