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3. The Holy Land: a reading; a description of a series of lantern slides

Title:	80 – Palmyra
Authors:	Thomas Mason Optician Thomas Mason Optician South Dublin Libraries Local Studies
Keywords:	Palmyra lantern slide Holy Land
Issue Date:	1910
Publisher:	Thomas Mason Optician, 5-6 Dame St Dublin.
Description:	Slide 80: one of a collection of lantern slides shown at Clondalkin branch library c 1910. Description given in booklet: We are now getting near our journey’s end. Taking advantage of one of the numerous caravans we cross the desert and in due course arrive at one of the most wonderful ruined cities in the world. We read in II Chronicles that Solomon ‘built Tadmor in the Wilderness’ – and this is Tadmor. It is indeed in the wilderness, and for nearly 1700 years has been almost unknown, and the photograph now on the screen is the first ever taken in this city. It occupies the site of a fertile oasis in the desert highway between the East and the West, and in the time of the Hebrews it formed a bulwark against the wandering hordes of Bedouin; but its early history is obscure. Its commercial importance, wealth, and magnificence, greatly increased after the time of Trajan, but the climax of its prosperity was reached under the reign of Queen-widow Zenobia, who after ruling with great magnificence and wisdom, was captured by the Roman Aurelian. It never recovered after this, and the magnificent ruins now known by the original name of Tadmor (City of Palms) are occupied by a few Arabic families. In conclusion, we may mention the thoughts and feelings excited by a journey in Palestine. The devotion of the believer is kindled beyond measure as he visits the earthly abode of the incarnate Diety. As to the sceptic we may quote the words of M. Renan, the mouthpiece of the critical and sceptical tendency of modern thought:- “I have traversed in all directions the Country of the Gospels, I have visited Jerusalem, Hebron, and Samaria; scarcely any important locality of the history of Jesus has escaped me. All this history, which at a distance seems to float in the clouds of an unreal world, thus took a form, a solidity which astonished me. The striking agreement of the texts with the places, the marvellous harmony of the Gospel ideal with the country which served it as a framework, were like a revelation to me. I had before my eyes a fifth Gospel, torn but still legible, and henceforward through the recitals of Matthew and Mark in place of an abstract being whose existence might have been doubted, I saw living and moving an admirable figure.’ What greater testimony to the power of “those Holy Fields” than these words can we give?
URI:	https://hdl.handle.net/10599/11804
Copyright:	If you wish to reproduce this image please contact South Dublin Libraries Local Studies, County Library, Tallaght, or e-mail localstudies@sdublincoco.ie.
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Appears in Collections:	Published Items The Holy Land: a reading; a description of a series of lantern slides

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