The Continent of Opportunity: The South American Republics--their History, Their Resources, Their Outlook. Together with a Traveller's Impressions of Present Day Conditions

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F.H. Revell Company, 1907 - South America - 349 pages
 

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Page 137 - When it raineth it is his pent-house; when it bloweth it is his tent ; when it freezeth it is his tabernacle. In summer he can wear it loose, in winter he can wrap it close ; at all times he can use it ; never heavy, never cumbersome.
Page 68 - Gold, in the figurative language of the people, was "the tears wept by the sun," and every part of the interior of the temple glowed with burnished plates and studs of the precious metal. The cornices which surrounded the walls of the sanctuary were of the same costly material ; and a broad belt or frieze of gold, let into the stonework, encompassed the whole exterior of the edifice.
Page 65 - We are filled with astonishment when we consider that these enormous masses were hewn from their native bed and fashioned into shape by a people ignorant of the use of iron ; that they were brought from quarries from four to fifteen leagues...
Page 74 - All this cloth and its fringe were mine, and now they give me a thread of it for my sustenance and that of all my house.
Page 67 - The interior of the temple was the most worthy of admiration. It was literally a mine of gold. On the western wall was emblazoned a representation of the deity, consisting of a human countenance looking forth from IV.— v ff 41 amidst innumerable rays of light, which emanated from it in every direction, in the same manner as the sun is often personified with us.
Page 65 - ... voluptuous repose. Here, too, they loved to indulge in the luxury of their baths, replenished by streams of crystal water which were conducted through subterraneous silver channels into basins of gold. The spacious gardens were stocked with numerous varieties of plants and flowers that grew without effort in this temperate region of the tropics, while parterres of a more extraordinary kind were planted by their side, glowing with the various forms of vegetable life skilfully imitated in gold...
Page 306 - Here we are, sometimes more than twenty of us in a little hut of wicker work and mud, roofed with straw, fourteen paces long and ten wide. This is the school, this is the infirmary, dormitory, refectory, kitchen, and store-room. Yet we covet not the more spacious dwellings which our brethren inhabit in other parts, for our Lord Jesus Christ was in a straiter place when it was his pleasure to be born among beasts in a manger ; and in a far straiter when he deigned to die for us upon the Cross.
Page 74 - Spanish occupation brought many incontestable benefits to South America. To say nothing of the civilized system of jurisprudence, the letters and the religion which have made the peoples of the continent members of the great western European family, the introduction of new and valuable animals, grains, and fruits raised the level of average well-being among the surviving inhabitants. Horses, asses, cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, chickens, pigeons, wheat, barley, oats, rice, olives, grapes, oranges,...
Page 65 - ... and lulled the senses to voluptuous repose. Here, too, they loved to indulge in the luxury of their baths, replenished by streams of crystal water which were conducted through subterraneous silver channels into basins of gold.
Page 67 - It was so situated in front of the great eastern portal, that the rays of the morning sun fell directly upon it at its rising...

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