Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1811 edition. Excerpt: ... grotto, forgetful of his intention to visit Sirina. gur, and occupied only in reflecting on the accident which had thus rendered him a resident in the neighbourhood of the Priestess of Cash. mire. CHAPTER VII. THE day was bright and ardent, the grotto was cool and shady: and the Missionary felt no inclination to leave a retreat so adapted to the season and his tone of mind. He engaged, in the perusal of the scriptures, an abridged translation of which he had made into the Hindu dialect, and in devotional exercises and pious meditations; yet, for the first time, he found his thoughts not always obedient to his will; but he perceived that they had not changed their character, but their object; and that, in reverting to the interview of ths morning, they still took into the scale of their reflection the subject of his mission. When he had finished the holy offices of the evening, he walked forth to enjoy its coolness and its beauty. He bent his steps involuntarily towards the altar erected at the confluence of the -streams. The whole scene had changed its aspect with the sun's course: it was still and gloomy, and formed a strong relief to the luxuriancy of the avenue of assoca-trees, on whose summit the western sky poured its flood of crimson light. He wandered through its illuminated shades, till he suddenly found himself in a little valley, almost surrounded by hills, and opening by a rocky defile, towards the mountains of Sirinagur, which formed a termination to the vista. In the centre of the valley, a stream, dividing into two branches, nearly surrounded a sloping mound, which swelled from their banks. The moumj was covered with flowering shrubs, through' whose entwining branches the shafts of a Verandah were partially seen, while the...