VISIT TO SOUTH ATRICA. 7 
" taking, to which, indeed, more than to any thing else, all my 
" studies and contemplations hitherto had a reference. This was 
" an Exposition and Elucidation of the Holy Scriptures. From 
" my childhood, such a veneration for its divine origin, and such a 
" high estimation of the worth and internal excellence of this book 
" had taken root within me, that, though my youthful spii it de- 
" lighted and almost revelled in the beauties of the fine arts and 
" the mathematics, it ulways returned with pleasure to these sa- 
" cred records, as feeling itself in them at home, and in the former 
" only as a wanderer and pilgrim. And yet, at that time, I had 
*' no knowledge of the Hebrew language, and could not extend my 
" research beyond the narrow limits of the vulgate. But having 
" broken through these bounds, and, as it were, standing at the 
" fountain itself, my soul felt an increasing relish for this study, and 
*' I believed, that I now saw the mysteries of heaven without a veil. 
" My increasing and more intimate acquaintance with those sa- 
" cred books convinced me, that, even if they were not of divine 
" origin, which faith teaches us to believe them to be, and which 
we know by internal convic tion, yet both their antiquity and the 
" immense number of extraordinary, mighty, and marvellous sub- 
" jects, which are to be found in this inexhaustible treasury, and 
" no where else, render them worthy, thiit we should devote all our 
" care, diligence, meditations, and nightly lucubrations, to the stu- 
" dy and understanding of them alone. Being, therefore, now re- 
" leased from the bondage of the court, I again betook myself to 
*' the study of the Ilebrew, combining with it that of the Syriac 
" and Arabic, and because the knowledge of languages requires 
" long and repeated exercise, I never suffered one day to pass, bc- 
tween the years 1681 and 1712 without employing one or two 
*' hours upon it, being a period of thirty-one years; nor did I ever 
" suffer business, journies, or even illness to interfere with this re- 
" solution. Thus, during that period of time, I have read the whole 
" Old Testament four-and-twenty times, with the greatest delight, 
and essential benefit to my soul." — This woitliy man was a de- 
