The Lost Cities of Ceylon

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John Murray, 1917 - Extinct cities - 256 pages

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Page iii - The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.
Page 58 - Abbey are believed to have flourished there twelve hundred years ago; the olives in the Garden of Gethsemane were full grown when the Saracens were expelled from Jerusalem; and the cypress of Soma, in Lombardy, is said to have been a tree in the time of Julius Caesar; yet, the...
Page 10 - Birth is attended with pain, decay is painful, disease is painful, death is painful. Union with the unpleasant is painful, painful is separation from the pleasant ; and any craving that is unsatisfied, that too is painful.
Page 33 - Which is not so much a particular single Town, as a Territory. It is a vast great Plain, the like I never saw in all that Island : in the midst whereof is a Lake, which may be a mile over, not natural, but made by art, as other Ponds in the Country, to serve them to water their Corn Grounds.
Page 15 - Our mind shall not waver. No evil speech will we utter. Tender and compassionate^ will we abide, loving in heart, void of malice within.
Page 15 - As a mother, even at the risk of her own life, protects her son, her only son, so let him cultivate love without measure towards all beings. Let him cultivate towards the whole world — above, below, around — a heart of love unstinted, unmixed with the sense of differing or opposing interests.
Page 99 - Abhayagiri, where there are now five thousand monks. There is in it a hall of Buddha, adorned with carved and inlaid work of gold and silver, and rich in the seven precious substances, in which there is an image of Buddha in green jade, more than twenty cubits in height, glittering all over with those substances, and having an appearance of solemn dignity which words cannot express. In the palm of the right hand there is a priceless pearl.
Page 58 - Abbey are believed to have flourished there 1,200 years ago; the Olives in the garden of Gethsemane were full grown when the Saracens were expelled from Jerusalem ; and the Cypress of Soma, in Lombardy, is said to have been a tree in the time of Julius Caesar : yet the...
Page 207 - ... personal superintendence of the King Kirti Nissanga, AD 1193. Bears in numbers find shelter amongst these ruins, and this sanctuary had only been vacated by some of them on hearing the noise of our approach. The guides, although armed with axes, as they advanced to the entrance often looked anxiously around, and requested that our guns might be kept in readiness. Before entering the building, the guide, standing on one side of VOL.
Page 109 - Pusána mountain, a range of buildings was at the same time constructed for the king's huntsmen. To the northward of these (he formed) the Gámini tank.

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