the place should still correspond so remarkably to the miracle which our Saviour performed there. Between Cana and Turan basaltic phenomena are of very frequent occurrence; and from the summit of Hutin, the mountain which tradition points out as the scene of our Saviour's memorable sermon, a magnificent prospect is presented, which we shall give in the author's own words, premising only that a reference to D'Anville's map of Syria would have shewn him that Jebel el Sieh is the general name for the whole chain of (not Libanus, but) anti-Libanus, and is identified by Jerom with the scriptural Hermon.

'From this situation we perceived that the plain, over which we had been so long riding, was itself very elevated. Far beneath appeared other plains, one lower than the other, in that regular gradation conceming which observations were recently made, and extending to the surface of the sea of Tiberias, or sea of Galilee. This immense lake, almost equal, in the grandeur of its appearance, to that of Geneva, spreads its waters over all the lower territory, extending from the northeast towards the south-west, and then bearing east of us. Its eastern shores present a sublime scene of mountains, extending towards the north and south, and seeming to close it in at either extremity; both towards Chorazin, where the Jordan enters; and the AULON, or Campus magnus, through which it flows to the Dead Sea. The cultivated plains reaching to its borders, which we beheld at an amazing depth below our view, resembled, by the various hues their different produce exhibited, the motley pattern of a vast carpet. To the north appeared snowy summits, towering, beyond a series of intervening mountains, with unspeakable greatness. We considered them as the summits of Libanus; but the Arabs belonging to our caravan called the principal eminence Jebel el Sieh, saying it was near Damascus; probably, therefore, a part of the chain of Libanus. This summit was so lofty, that the snow entirely covered the upper part of it; not lying in patches, as I have seen it, during summer, upon the tops of very elevated mountains, (for instance, upon that of Ben Nevis in Scotland,) but investing all the higher part with that perfect white and smooth velvet-like appearance which snow only exhibits when it is very deep; a striking spectacle in such a climate, where the beholder, seeking protection from a burning sun, almost considers the firmament to be on fire.'pp. 454, 455, 456.

Dr. Clarke is without authority, however, in fixing the tempta tion of our Saviour and the retirement of John, in the elevated plain north of this lake. Enon and Bethabara, the places most frequented by the Baptist, are fixed, by Eusebius and Reland, not far from Scythopolis, at least fifty miles to the southward; and there is every reason to suppose that the wilderness, whither Jesustired, was in the same vicinity, where he had received his be

ie

ptism.

But the northern parts of Galilee, and the borders of ' rachonitis

neither are, nor ever have been desert: the ancient

ame of Sha

ron,

ron, which, in common with many other districts, they bore, may be, perhaps, retained among the Christian Arabs; and this, to the ear of a learner, might easily sound like the Arabic word Sahara.

Some interesting particulars are added respecting the Druses, a race concerning whose origin many absurd notions have been propagated; and whose religion, though enveloped in mystery, is believed to retain, among other singular rites, the worship of the golden calf. They are a race, both in habits and physiognomy, distinct from the Arabs, and are highly spoken of for their probity and mildness of disposition. That they are a kindred people with the ancient Etruscans, Dr. Clarke has hazarded a conjecture in a note to p. 327; and it is certainly rendered probable by the manner in which Rauwolf spells their name. Dr. Clarke will find many hints, by no means unworthy his attention, in Hyde, (Relig. Vet. Persarum, p. 461.) who, though he often fails in critical acumen, had an acquaintance with eastern authors and manners which entitle his opinions to the highest deference, assisted as he was by the local knowledge of Chardin. Both in religion and dialect (Dr. Clarke does not seem aware that the Druses have a peculiar dialect) Hyde identifies them with the Curds, and asserts that the epithets of Yesidean, Curd, and Calb (quære, xaλubes?) are given by the Turks to both. The nightly meetings and promiscuous intercourse of their Okkals, he confirms by the whimsical anecdote of a Syrian, who in disguise was present at one of them, but was detected by an indiscreet curiosity as to the age and beauty of the female (an old woman unluckily) who fell to his share in the blindfold scramble. Those singular fanatics, the assassins, were, according to him, of their number; and he finds them in Herodotus as inhabitants of Libanus, under the name of AHPOYMIAIOI.

The hot baths near Tiberias are still frequented, and the House of Peter, as it is called, is possibly the most ancient place of Christian worship now standing in Palestine. The Christian inhabitants of the town are numerous, and there are Jewish families who pretend to have resided there ever since the days of Vespasian. The lake, six miles broad, and perhaps seventeen in length, is beautifully clear, and the fish, both here and in the Jordan, resemble those of the Nile. Our travellers were prevented from visiting mount Tabor by the war which then raged between its inhabitants and Djezzar, and they proceeded by Nazareth to the plain of Esdraelon, incurring by the way considerable risk of their lives brough our author's impetuosity, and the stupidity or malice of ti. of their Arab conductors.

one 'e almost exhausted subject of Arabian manners, little that On ti he expected; and Dr. Clarke had no great opportunities is new cam of adding, from personal observation, any traits to the elaborate

portraits

portraits of D'Arvieux and Niebuhr, though his illustrations of Scripture by the present habits of the country are here, as elsewhere, felicitous and striking. His party joined the camp of Djezzar's army, in the plain of Esdraelon; and here, for the first time, they experienced an attack of the dreadful simoom, or southern wind. Dr. Clarke's account of this memorable plain, which, though a solitude, he found like one vast meadow, covered with the richest pasture, together with his recapitulation of the different nations whose tents have been wet with the dews of Hermon,' is interesting and lively; but we are much surprised that he should speak of it as almost a new discovery, and as hitherto seldom noticed in books of travels. It does not,' he observes, occur in the ordinary route pursued by pilgrims in their jammies to Jerusalem. These men have generally landed at Jaffa, and have returned thither, after completing their pilgrimage.' And of this, he assures us in a note, the reader may find amusing evidence in an extract from a MS. poem of the Cottonian library.--The last line will not easily be paralleled.

At port Jaff begynn wee

And so frothe from gre to gre,

At port Jaff there is a place

Where Peter raysed thrugh Goddes grace

From dede to lif Tabitane,

He was a woman, that was her name.'

We cannot tell what weight he may assign to this golden legend, but we are very sure that landing at Jaffa is no proof that pilgrims were not in the habit of visiting Galilee. On the contrary, there is good proof that almost all the most intelligent pilgrims either landed at Acre or embarked from thence :-nor, if we begin with the earliest, and descend to the most recent age of eastern travel, is there any spot which Dr. Clarke has visited which had not been previously described by Brocardus the monk, Bartholomæus à Saligniaco, Zuallart, Antonio de Castillo, Le Brun, Maundrell, and Pococke. We mention these because we have referred to them; how many more have trod the same course we know not; nor what voyages, besides the silly publication of Châteaubriand, (which Dr. Clarke has the goodness to praise,) have omitted all mention of Samaria and Galilee. By Ginea, now Jinnin, the frontier town between Galilee and Samaria, and the town and Norman fortress of Santoni, which our author, with great proba bility, identifies with the ancient Sebaste, he proceeded to Sichem, now Naplouse, whose beautiful valley, with the tomb of Joseph, still held in reverence, and Jacob's well, ascertained by the circumstances of its situation, together with the various and awful associations which these objects recal, are painted with a force of

N 3

eloquence

eloquence and feeling which do the highest honour to the writer's heart and genius. This is tempting ground; but our extracts have been already unreasonable, and our limits forbid us to linger even in these hallowed precincts.

The tyranny of Djezzar ended at Jinnin, and the milder government of the Pacha of Damascus was apparent in the diligent cultivation of the Samaritan vallies, and of the rugged mountains of Judea which they were now beginning to ascend. Dr. Clarke indeed has rendered a worthy service to the cause of truth, in repelling effectually, and we trust finally, the idle charge of sterility, which the ignorance of infidelity has so long advanced against the Holy Land, in contradiction to all ancient authorities, and to the united testimony of the best modern travellers.

"A sight of this territory can alone convey any adequate idea of its surprising produce: it is truly the Eden of the east, rejoicing in the abundance of its wealth. The effect of this upon the people was strikingly pourtrayed in every countenance: instead of the depressed and gloomy looks of Djezzar Pacha's desolated plains, health, hilarity, and peace, were visible in the features of the inhabitants. Under a wise and a beneficent government, the produce of the Holy Land would exceed all calculation. Its perennial harvest; the salubrity of its air; its limpid springs; its rivers, lakes, and matchless plains; its hills and vales;-all these, added to the serenity of its climate, prove this land to be indeed "a field which the Lord hath blessed: God hath given it of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine."-p. 520.

The approach to the Holy City' is described with equal eloquence: its present size and even stateliness surprized them, and the Turkish seraskier, and the corpulent friars of the Latin convent received their English visitors with due respect and unbounded hospitality. The day after their arrival, having first dispatched the swarms of Jews and Armenians who besiege all new-comers with their merchandize of beads, crosses, shells, and amulets, (the latter of fetid limestone from the banks of the Dead Sea,) the party set out on their excursion to the holy places.

This is a very interesting part of the volume, and as Dr. Clarke has assumed the privilege of a Protestant and a Christian philosopher, to differ from the generally received opinion as to the most venerable of these places, we will endeavour to put our readers in possession of the question as it has hitherto stood; and while we do. justice to the acuteness and good sense of Dr. Clarke's remarks, to state some circumstances which may seem to hold the question even yet in a state of uncertainty.

The interested mummery and gross ignorance of the guardians of such antiquities as Jerusalem might be supposed to furnish,

have apparently omitted no circumstance of absurdity which might shake the credit of their own tradition, and, if that tradition had any foundation in truth, brand even truth itself with the external symptoms of falsehood. But as no reliques can, be so interesting as these, it is at least worth an effort to separate whatever parts of the detail are least likely to have been falsified, from such as bear the evident stamp of priestcraft and superstition. The first and most remarkable, and one which it is of all others the most necessary to get rid of, is the pretended rock of Calvary. We know not on what authority the scene of our Saviour's execution has been described as a small hill without the city, resembling a buman skull.' No such feature occurs in the accounts of the resurrection; nor in the details of the siege by Josephus is any mention made of a point whose military importance would be obvious to both sides, and of course contested by both. Nor does St. Jerome, who, of all Christian writers, is most diffuse in bis descriptions, afford any ground for such a supposition; he speaks of it in his commentary on St. Luke, as a part of the hill on which Jerusalem stood; and in his epistle to Paulinus, as a rock or cliff indeed, but apparently not an insulated one. probably the brow of that hill on which the city walls were built, and not itself an elevated mound. The fact, therefore, which both D'Anville and Dr. Clarke assume as certain, that Calvary was a hill, appears itself as apocryphal as that Adam was buried there; but there is also another circumstance which has been rashly taken as granted, namely, that the tomb of our Saviour was in the same place as his cross. That this, so far from being founded on Scripture, is in itself highly improbable, is apparent for the following

reasons.

It was

The cavern in which Jesus was laid, was certainly not constructed for the purpose of receiving his remains: it was the private cemetery of Joseph of Arimathæa, who intended it for himself; and it was, moreover, situated in a garden, no doubt, belonging to the same proprietor. Now, that in the very place where the enemies of Jesus crucified him, one of his disciples should have previously, and without expecting it, constructed a tomb for his remains, was a coincidence too singular and too apparently providential to have escaped the notice of the Evangelists: and it was also most improbable that the Roman soldiers should have selected, as the place of three executions, and the exposure of three bodies on the cross, the garden of any individual, more especially when that individual was a magistrate of considerable rank. The place whither our Saviour and the two malefactors were taken, was probably the place made use of on such occasions, and the n me of Golgotha, which Dr. Clarke insists on to prove its si