' Cruel Babylon!"--"Yet, even admitting all
this," we asked, "how can you reconcile with the spirit of christianity
the permission given to the Jews by the psalmist, to 'take up her little
ones and dash them against the stones.'"--"Ah! you misunderstand the
sense, the psalm does not authorize cruelty;--mais, attendez! ce n'est
pas ainsi: ces pierres la sont Saint Pierre; et heureux celui qui les
attachera a Saint Pierre; qui montrera de l'attachement, de
l'intrepidite pour sa religion."--Then again, looking at the chapel,
with tears and sobs, "how can we expect to prosper, how to escape these
miseries, after having committed such enormities?"--His name, he told
us, was Jacquemet, and my companion kindly made a sketch of his face,
while I noted down his words.
This specimen will give you some idea of the extraordinary influence of
the Roman catholic faith over the mind, and of the curious perversions
under which it does not scruple to take refuge.
Leaving for the present the dusty legends of superstition, I describe
with pleasure my recollections of the glorious prospect over which the
eye ranges from the hill of Saint Catherine.
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