Excerpt from To Jerusalem Through the Lands of Islam: Among Jews, Christians, and Moslems
This book is the expression of truth which has been felt and lived. It bears witness to the spirit of the early days of Christianity: - it is a revelation of the mysterious link which unites us with the conquered race of Islam.
The author is a woman of another continent than that of which she writes, or in which she writes. She has been for a tour through Algeria, a tour which was neither scientific, nor historical, nor geographical, but something better and more original than all these: a tour of Christian Exploration.
The result she has attained is as striking as it was unexpected. That result does not consist in the indication of new riches to be exploited in a conquered country, in a colony which is but an extension of France, nor in any of those advantages which are the ordinary objects and achievements of our humanitarian explorations. On the contrary, our author discovers that the Arab, though despoiled by our conquest, has preserved riches of which we cannot deprive him, and advantages which suffice for his happiness during his earthly life. For what is to us merely optional, or unnecessary, is to the Arab indispensable. These treasures are the brotherhood of souls in the faith in God; - the principles of conduct which result from it, and the admirable instinct which enables him to distinguish, even before a word has been spoken, between true affinity and hypocritical sympathy. These are the treasures which "neither moth nor rust doth corrupt." The vanquished finds therein a source of joy of which none can deprive him: for he has laid up his treasure in his heart.
Such are the author's discoveries. Her book is fiat lux of our Algeria. We must read it - or rather we must travel with her, - for truth guides her pen, as charity has guided her steps.
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