Page:Three Years in Europe.djvu/28

8 stronger impression on the mind than any appeal to reason; it softens the heart and makes it penitent —devotional—superstitious. It is by such means that the Roman Catholic religion is chiefly supported, and naturally enough the religion receives so great a help from the fine arts. The Italians besides have a strong imagination, and in fine arts are superior to all other nations in Europe, and where can their powers of imagination be so well employed as in the support of their national religion? For these reasons the Italian Churches are superior to any others in the world in paintings and sculptures, decorations and illuminations, solemnity and grandeur.

We came back to our steamer at $3 1⁄2$ and our steamer left Malta at 5.

From a distance the noble rock of Gibralter looks like a lion sitting. The name Gibralter comes from the Arabic Jebel-al-Tarik, i. e., the rock of Tarik, the Mahomedan Conqueror of Spain. When he landed in Spain, his followers were daunted at their own critical position, having to fight in a strange mountainous country and against tremendous odds. But, "whither shall you fly?" enquired the brave Tarik of his soldiers, "the foes are before you, the roaring sea behind." The Moslems almost ashamed of their own cowardice rushed on their foes and defeated them. This gallant spirit accompanied Tarik through all his campaigns and eventually enabled him to subjugate almost the whole of Spain.

The rocks and fortifications of Gibralter are things