"I gazed on the distant borders of the Lake"

"I gazed on the distant borders of the Lake"

Travelogues--James Spencer Knox--Lough Derg--Description

Knox muses on the link between agriculture and spiritual rectitude

James Spencer Knox, 1789-1862

Pastoral Annals. By an Irish Clergyman [i.e. James S. Knox], p. 386

R. B. Seeley and W. Burnside, London

1840

Digitised by Google, sponsored by Princeton Library

Public domain

Monograph

English

Travelogue

DD_0274

54.626894, -7.924317

https://books.google.com.mm/books?id=kIIuAAAAYAAJ&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=lough%20derg&f=false

"Thought ran its busy round. I gazed on the distant borders of the Lake, dimly distinguishable from the Sainted Island, which is situated near to one extremity, and attainable by a row of a few minutes. The mountains were indeed brown and barren on their summits; but crops waved, and green grass grew - and both, continually ascending the gently sloping sides, testified to the successful progress of human labour. And is this an emblem of mankind? Beneath my feet lies the unreclaimed soil, which nor spade nor plow have ever penetrated, yet susceptible, to happy cultivation. Is this a type of my poor benighted countrymen, condemned by an artful priesthood to the curse of moral sterility, lest they should bring forth fruit a hundred-fold?"

Monograph