t 
138 THE HOLY LAND. 
^^^^- a fruitful field.' For this reason we had early 
^ - y ^ resolved to use the Sacred Scriptures as our 
only guide throughout this interesting territory; 
and the delight afforded by an internal evidence 
of truth, in every instance where fidelity of 
description could be ascertained by a com- 
parison with existing documents, surpassed 
even all we had anticipated'. Such extra- 
ordinary instances of coincidence, even with 
the customs of the country as they are now 
retained, and so many wonderful examples of 
illustration afforded by contrasting the simple 
narrative with the appearances exhibited, made 
us only regret the shortness of our time, and 
the limited sphere of our abiUties for tKe 
comparison. When the original compiler^ of 
" Observations on various Passages of Scrip- 
ture" undertook to place them in a new light, 
and to explain their meaning by relations inci- 
dently mentioned in books of Voyages and 
Travels in the East, he was struck by commu- 
nications the authors of those books were them- 
(1) " Scio equidem multa Joca falso ostendi ab hominibus lucri 
avidis per universam Palcestinam ; ac si haec et ilia uiiranda opera ibi 
patrata fuisseiit, sed hoc tamen negari non potest, aliqua sane certo 
sciri." Relandi Paltestina, cap. iv. in Tliesaiir. Antlq. Sacrar. UgoUni, 
vol. VI. Venet. 1746. 
(2) The Rev. Thomtis Harnter. See the diftereut editions of his 
Work, 1761, 1777, 1787; and especially the /owriA, publislied in 1808, 
l)V Dr. Adam Clarite. 
