58 ISLAND OF PATMOS.' 
CHAP, surrounded by many of the grandest objects 
. '^ j in the Archipelago. 
Holy As we descended from the great Monastery 
Grotto. 
of St. John, we turned off, upon our right, to 
visit a smaller edifice of the same nature, 
erected over a cave, or grot, where the Apo- 
calypse, attributed to that Evangelist, is said to 
have been written. It can hardly be considered 
as any other than a hermitage, and it is e.n- 
tirely dependent upon the principal Monastery. 
As to the cave itself, whence this building 
derives its origin, and to which it owes all its 
pretended sanctity, it may be supposed that 
any other cave would have answered the pur- 
pose fully as well: it is not spacious enough 
to have afforded a habitation even for a hermit; 
and there is not the slightest probability that 
any thing related concerning it, by the monks, 
is founded in truth. The reader will find a very 
accurate representation of it in Tournefort\ 
shewing the crevices in the stone through which 
it is pretended that the Holy Spirit conveyed 
its dictates to the Apostle. It affords another 
striking proof, in addition to many already 
enumerated, that there is no degree of absurdity 
(l) Voyage du Levant, torn. II. p. 145. & Lyon, 1717. 
