The impossibility of handing down property from father to son for
any long period consecutively seems to prevent the existence of
those traditions by which, with us, the refined modes of applying
wealth are made known to its inheritors. We know that in England a
newly-made rich man cannot, by taking thought and spending money,
obtain even the same-looking furniture as a gentleman. The
complicated character of an English establishment allows room for
subtle distinctions between that which is comme il faut, and that
which is not. All such refinements are unknown in the East; the
Pasha and the peasant have the same tastes. The broad cold marble
floor, the simple couch, the air freshly waving through a shady
chamber, a verse of the Koran emblazoned on the wall, the sight and
the sound of falling water, the cold fragrant smoke of the
narghile, and a small collection of wives and children in the inner
apartments--these, the utmost enjoyments of the grandee, are yet
such as to be appreciable by the humblest Mussulman in the empire.
But its gardens are the delight, the delight and the pride of
Damascus. They are not the formal parterres which you might expect
from the Oriental taste; they rather bring back to your mind the
memory of some dark old shrubbery in our northern isle, that has
been charmingly un--"kept up" for many and many a day.
Pages:
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355