LETTER XX.

MONTSERRAT.


I never left any place with more secret satisfaction than I did
_Barcelona_; exclusive of the entertainment I was prepared to expect,
by visiting this holy mountain; nor have I been disappointed; but on
the contrary, found it, in every respect, infinitely superior to the
various accounts I had heard of it;--to give a perfect description of
it is impossible;--to do that it would require some of those attributes
which the Divine Power by whose almighty handy it was raised, is
endowed with. It is called _Montserrat_, or _Mount-Scie_,[C] by the
_Catalonians_, words which signify a cut or _sawed mountain_; and so
called from its singular and extraordinary form; for it is so broken,
so divided, and so crowned with an infinite number of spiring cones,
or PINE heads, that it has the appearance, at distant view, to be the
work of man; but upon a nearer approach, to be evidently raised by HIM
alone, to whom nothing is impossible. It looks, indeed, like the first
rude sketch of GOD's work; but the design is great, and the execution
such, that it compels all men who approach it, to lift up their hands
and eyes to heaven, and to say,--Oh GOD!--HOW WONDERFUL ARE ALL THY
WORKS!

[C] The arms of the Abbey are--A saw in the middle of a rock.