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September 27, 2007
Mark Twain, The Sea of Galilee and Lake Tahoe
Todd Bolen of Bible Places reminds us of a comparison, made by Mark Twain, between the Sea of Galilee and Lake Tahoe. The account can be found in Twain's Innocents Abroad, Chapter XLVIII or if you're in a hurry, you can read read part of Twain's report at Todd's place.
Todd doesn't give the whole account, nor will I. But here a little more of it,
It [Lake Tahoe] is solitude, for birds and squirrels on the shore and fishes in the water are all the creatures that are near to make it otherwise, but it is not the sort of solitude to make one dreary. Come to Galilee for that. If these unpeopled deserts, these rusty mounds of barrenness, that never, never, never do shake the glare from their harsh outlines, and fade and faint into vague perspective; that melancholy ruin of Capernaum; this stupid village of Tiberias, slumbering under its six funereal plumes of palms; yonder desolate declivity where the swine of the miracle ran down into the sea, and doubtless thought it was better to swallow a devil or two and get drowned into the bargain than have to live longer in such a place; this cloudless, blistering sky; this solemn, sailless, tintless lake, reposing within its rim of yellow hills and low, steep banks, and looking just as expressionless and unpoetical (when we leave its sublime history out of the question,) as any metropolitan reservoir in Christendom—if these things are not food for rock me to sleep, mother, none exist, I think.
You might want to compare this illustration of the Sea of Galilee from the 1869 edition of Twain's Innocents Abroad with Todd's abnormally interesting illustrations.
Should anyone ask you, the full title of Twain's book is The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress.
Posted by Duane Smith at September 27, 2007 7:58 PM | Read more on Mark Twain |
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