viii PREFACE. 
the ftate of the country, or charadler of the inha- 
bitants. 
A more creative imagination would have drawn 
more animated pidures , a mind more difpofed to 
obfervation would have colledled more fad:s and in- 
cidents ; and a more vigorous intelledt would have 
converted thofe fa^ts and incidents into materials of 
more interefting and more ftriking inveftigation. 
The defcriptions would have been more impreflive, 
and the deductions more profound. 
The prefent work has the merit of being com- 
pofed from obfervations made in the places and on 
the fubjeds defcribed. But the praife of fidelity, 
the only one to which the writer lays claim, cannot 
be received till another fhall have traced his foot- 
fteps. 
With refpeCl to Egypt a greater number of per- 
fons may be found who are qualified to decide, and 
there is not the fame reafon for fufpenfion of judg- 
ment. 
Without 
