The Village in the Mountains; Conversion of Peter Bayssiere; and History of a Bible
THE VILLAGE IN THE MOUNTAINS. M. ----, a merchant, at the head of one of the first commercial houses in Paris,[1] had occasion to visit the manufactories established in the mountainous tracts of the Departments of the Loire and the Puy de Dome. The road that conducted him back to Lyons traversed a country rich in natural productions, and glowing with all the charms of an advanced and promising spring. The nearer view was unusually diversified; not only by the fantastic forms of mountains, the uncertain course of small and tributary streams, and the varying hues of fields of pasture, corn, vines, and vegetables, but by the combinations and contrasts of nature and of art, and the occupations of rural and commercial industry. Factories and furnaces were seen rising amidst barns and sheep-cotes, peasants were digging, and ploughs gliding amidst forges and foundries; verdant slopes and graceful clumps of trees were scattered amidst the black and ugly mouths of exhausted coal-pits; and the gentle murmur of the stream was subdued by the loud rattle of the loom. Sometimes M. ---- and his friend halted amidst all that is delightful and soothing; and after a short advance, found themselves amidst barrenness, deformity, and
his fellow-worshippers would open their blue Saxon eyes, and ransack
their rustic brains, as to "what ~could~ ha' come to rector," if he
were to indulge in Greek and Latin quotations, - ~somewhat~ after the
following style. "And though this interpretation may in these days be
disputed, yet we shall find that it was once very generally received.
For the learned St. Chrysostom is very clear on this point, where he
says, 'Arma virumque cano, rusticus expectat, sub tegmine fagi'; of
which the words of Irenaeus are a confirmation -
{otototoio, papaperax, poluphloisboio thalassaes}."
Our hero, indeed, could not but help wondering what the fairer portion
of the congregation made of these parts of the sermons, to whom,
probably, the sentences just quoted would have sounded as full of
meaning as those they really heard.
* * * * * * * *
"Hallo, Giglamps!" said the cheery voice of little Mr. Bouncer, as
he looked one morning into Verdant's rooms, followed by his two
bull-terriers; "why don't you sport something in the dog line?
Something in the bloodhound or tarrier way. Ain't you fond o' dogs?"
"Oh, very!" replied our hero. "I once had a very nice one, - a King
Charles."
"Oh!" observed Mr. Bouncer, "one of them beggars that you have to
feed with spring chickens, and get up with curling tongs. Ah!
THE VILLAGE IN THE MOUNTAINS. M. ----, a merchant, at the head of one of the first commercial houses in Paris,[1] had occasion to visit the manufactories established in the mountainous tracts of the Departments of the Loire and the Puy de Dome. The road that conducted him back to Lyons traversed a country rich in natural productions, and glowing with all the charms of an advanced and promising spring. The nearer view was unusually diversified; not only by the fantastic forms of mountains, the uncertain course of small and tributary streams, and the varying hues of fields of pasture, corn, vines, and vegetables, but by the combinations and contrasts of nature and of art, and the occupations of rural and commercial industry. Factories and furnaces were seen rising amidst barns and sheep-cotes, peasants were digging, and ploughs gliding amidst forges and foundries; verdant slopes and graceful clumps of trees were scattered amidst the black and ugly mouths of exhausted coal-pits; and the gentle murmur of the stream was subdued by the loud rattle of the loom. Sometimes M. ---- and his friend halted amidst all that is delightful and soothing; and after a short advance, found themselves amidst barrenness, deformity, and