Brazil, the Amazons and the coast .. . g into immensity,the horizon so distant that it is lost in haze. Often theclouds gather around this peak, and through the rifts youget telescopic glimpses of houses and rocks below. Again,the clouds have covered everything, you are floating in grayspace ; nothing visible above, around, below ; only this rock without a founda-tion, and the wetmist beating in yourface. Once only I hada sight here, thelike of which I maynever meet withagain. The cloudswere floating, per-haps a hundredyards below, and onthem the afternoonsun painted a com-plete and most vivid
Brazil, the Amazons and the coast .. . g into immensity,the horizon so distant that it is lost in haze. Often theclouds gather around this peak, and through the rifts youget telescopic glimpses of houses and rocks below. Again,the clouds have covered everything, you are floating in grayspace ; nothing visible above, around, below ; only this rock without a founda-tion, and the wetmist beating in yourface. Once only I hada sight here, thelike of which I maynever meet withagain. The cloudswere floating, per-haps a hundredyards below, and onthem the afternoonsun painted a com-plete and most vividrainbow ; a circle,like a halo, with theshadow of the moun-p tain-top in the cen- Botafogo and -the Corcovado. trC. It laStcd Ouly for a moment, but it was worth the climb, and the voyageof five thousand miles. Here, from the hills, I look down on the city below, andmy thoughts are healthier, as the air is purer about me. Ihave faith in the future of Brazil, because I have faith inhuman hearts and human progress. I remember that there. SOCIAL LIFE AT RIO. 483 is a leaven of good even in the wicked city. I rememberthat goodness and truth and reason are always strong ; saywhat you will, they are getting the better of evil the worldover, and they will get the better of it here. I reflect onthe generous impulses that Brazilians have shown, theirkindness to strangers, which I should be the last to for-get, their religious tolerance, their brave sacrifices to getrid of slavery. And now I believe that there is a strongernational life, underlying these clouds and bright spots. Lookover to Sao Domingos ! We stood there in the morning,and saw this rock, like a glistening diamond over the mist ;but the mist did not hold it up ; rock must be founded onrock. And I tell you that the good men and good deedsin Brazil betoken good in the Brazilian character ; good thatwill increase as the world grows older. It is a law of nature,of human progress ; a law that shall stand when these moun-tains h
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, booksubjectbrazild, bookyear1879
