102 ON MOUNTAINS. 



independance, and have preserved their Hbeity, from 

 the attacks of European despotism. The Marouetes 

 of Syria, housed among the heights of Mount 

 Libanus, manage to keep Turkish tyranny at a 

 distance ; Hke the great Cedars of Lebanon they 

 owe their safety to their mountain defiles. The 

 mountains of the Morea have preserved a remnant 

 of Spartan independance, for the Mainhottes have 

 preserved their liberty from the armies of the Ven- 

 etian, the Turk, and Egyptian. The mountain 

 ridge is the last refuge which nature has reared to 

 preserve liberty in the Earth, " to preserve to man 

 his highest hopes, his noblest emotions, his dearest 

 treasures, his faith, his freedom, his health and home. 

 How glorious do these mountain ridges appear when 

 we look upon them as the unconquerable abode of 

 free hearts ; as the stern, heaven-built walls from 

 which the few, the feeble, the persecuted, the des- 

 pised, the helpless child, the delicate woman have, 

 from age to age, in their last perils, in all their weak- 

 nesses and emergencies, when power and cruelty 

 were ready to swallow them up, looked down and 

 beheld the million waves of despotism break at their 

 feet ! " The murderous host avoids the mountain 

 defiles: it passes on and subjugates the natives of 

 the plain ; while the stern mountaineer looks down 

 with contempt and scorn, on the instruments of am- 

 bition and tyranny. In all ages, and in every part 

 of the Earth, have mountains been held in veneration. 

 The Muses were natives of, and lived among, moun- 

 tains. Old Admiral Noah, struck soundings, and 

 laid his Ark aground, on the top of Mount Ararat, 

 here he disembarked and built an altar. Homer tells 

 us that the Gods, having met in council to deliberate 

 on Greek and Trojan affairs ; Jupiter took coach for 

 Mount Ida, to survey the approaching fight: — 

 " High on the throne he shines ; his coursers fly 

 Between the extended earth and starry sky. 

 But when to Ida's topmost height he came, 

 Fair nurse of fountains, and of savage game, 

 Where, o'er her pointed summits proudly raised, 

 His fane breath'd odours, and his altar blazed, 



