UNIVERSAL ERUDITION; 



Athos, and thofe which profefibr Michaelis of 

 Gottingen gave to the learned men, who were 

 lately fent to the Holy Land, and other parts of 

 Afia, by the king of Denmark, will clearly fee 

 the importance, utility, and even indifpeniable 

 neceffity of fuch informations. He, who does 

 not know what it is he ought to inquire after, 

 can never expeft to find, except it be by chance, 

 any thing remarkable that others have not 

 found before him. It were to be wifhed, in 

 the lad place, that no one would undertake 

 fuch a journey, without the company of fome 

 one fkillful in drawing, and even in geometry ; 

 for there are a thoufand occafions where it will 

 be necefiary to meafure altitudes and diftances, 

 and a thoufand objefts, of which adequate de- 

 fcriptions cannot be given, of which we cannot 

 form a true idea, without the help of figures. 



IV. During the courfe of his journey, the 

 traveller cannot be too much on his guard, as 

 well againft his own credulity, as the mares that 

 will be laid for him by the inhabitants of the 

 countries through which he mall travel. All 

 nations of the earth, and efpecially thofe of the 

 warm climates, are full of ancient traditions anc} 

 fables ; which, if he mould believe, would carry 

 him far diftant from the truth. Herodotus, 

 Diodorus Siculus, and almoft all the ancient 

 hiftorians, geographers, and travellers, have 

 been the dupes of thefe relations. We cannot 

 read, without difguft, the idle tales they recount, 



and 



