44 RIVERBY 



rough, shaggy surface of the earth here and there. 

 In any such view, the wild, the aboriginal, the geo- 

 graphical greatly predominate. The works of man 

 dwindle, and the original features of the huge globe 

 come out. Every single object or point is dwarfed; 

 the valley of the Hudson is only a wrinkle in the 

 earth's surface. You discover with a feeling of 

 surprise that the great thing is the earth itself, which 

 stretches away on every hand so far beyond your ken. 

 The Arabs believe that the mountains steady the 

 earth and hold it together; but they had only to 

 get on the top of a high one to see how insignificant 

 they are, and how adequate the earth looks to get 

 along without them. To the imaginative Oriental 

 people, mountains seemed to mean much more than 

 they do to us. They were sacred; they were the 

 abodes of their divinities. They offered their sac- 

 rifices upon them. In the Bible, mountains are used 

 as a symbol of that which is great and holy. Jeru- 

 salem is spoken of as a holy mountain. The Syrians 

 were beaten by the Children of Israel because, said 

 they, "their gods are gods of the hills; therefore 

 were they stronger than we." It was on Mount 

 Horeb that God appeared to Moses in the burning 

 bush, and on Sinai that he delivered to him the law. 

 Josephus says that the Hebrew shepherds never 

 pasture their flocks on Sinai, believing it to be the 

 abode of Jehovah. The solitude of mountain-tops 

 is peculiarly impressive, and it is certainly easier 

 to believe the Deity appeared in a burning bush 

 there than in the valley below. When the clouds 



