Two of the most celebrated historic rivers are the Abana and
Pharpar. These streams begin their course under the most
promising auspices. Their source is in Lebanon. The Abana, now
called the Barada, is the pride and joy of the plain below.
It forces its way from the declivity where it has its cradle
through a rocky barrier and spreads out fan-like in seven
streams over the plain. “Everything lives whither the river
cometh.” A meadow, in which the whole Oriental world exults,
holds in its lap Damascus, the most beautiful garden city in
the world. Its many minarets and domes tower up above the
countless bowers in the courts of the old houses. Abana still
as ever sustains this fruitfulness and splendor. But only a few
miles from its source its waters are exhausted, for the desert
swallows it, and the Pharpar also. Both die, forming great
swamps and evaporating.
So it is with many human beings whose lives are for a few years
efficient and full of promise and even performance, only very soon to
flag and fade and to fall into utter desuetude. (Text.)
(848)
See GREAT MEN’S BEGINNINGS.