text:  There are certain rivers which represent nations and ideas and periods of history--the Scamander for instance bringing to our thoughts the days of Grecian heroism; when men fought with gods and in so doing seemed to wrest from them a portion of their supernatural strength and beauty--the Nile the priestly Nile mysterious as a dogma but rich in blessings as the agency of a divine spirit; concealed in its source but manifest in its operation--then the Jordan the stream of revelation on whose banks is heard the rushing of the wings of the dove while a voice other than that of man murmurs over the waters--and the Tiber a small and muddy stream but the gigantic and sparkling reflex of Rome's immortal turrets