VI PREFACE® 
Among later writers, some have extended the bounda- 
ries of Palsesfine, and others have circumscribed the limits 
of Syria. D’Anville(^) considers the former as including 
the whole of Phcenice, with all the western side of Anti- 
Libanus and Hermon; and Mentelle, editor of the an¬ 
cient Geography published in the French Encyclopedia* 
confines the latter to that part of Asia which has the Me¬ 
diterranean on the west; Mount Taurus, the river Euphra¬ 
tes, and a small portion of Arabia, on the east; and the 
land of Judea, or Palestine, on the south. (x) D’Anviile 
had considered Judaea merely as a province of Palaestine. 
In fact, the several additions to the number of observations 
published concerning this part of Asia, seem rather to 
have increased than diminished the uncertainty respecting 
the geography of the country. “ Tanta est ,” says Selden 
“ inter prof anas et s'acras literas in regionum Jinibus 
discrepantia . Neque in Syrian duntaxat nomine , sed in 
Judeza, et Palcestine, Judceos , ut purest, sen Ebrccos a 
Palceslinis ubique separamus ita et Scriptura . Sed 
PlolemcBo , Slraboni , Tacito , Syria Palcestina eadem 
ipsa est , qnce Judoea : aliis diverscz sunt, sic Ebrai 
a PalossMnis disierminantur.”(y) This discrepancy 
characterizes even the writings of the learned Cellarius, 
who, at an early period, opened his treatise De Syria 
with marks of the indecision perplexing the sources of 
his information.(s) Dr. Wells, in his “ Historical Geogra* 
phy of the Old and New Testament,” restricts Syria 
within much narrower limits than those assigned for it 
by Mentelle, excluding all Phcenice and the Holy 
Land. “Although,” says he,(a) “heathen authors do 
sometimes include the Holy Land as a part of Syria^ 
yet by sacred writers it is always used in a more re¬ 
strained sense; and in the New Testament,.as a coim- 
(u ) Voy. Carte de la Palaestine, par D’Anvjlle. Par. 1767. 
•(#( Encyclop. Methodique, Geog. Ane. tom. III. Par . 1792 
•{i/) Selden then quotes from Statius, Syl. V. 
Palaestini simul Ebraique liquores, 
Vide Seldeni Prohgo?nena ad Syntagma de Diis. Syne 
(z) He is speaking of Pliny. “ JSimis taxe finis ponit Syria: sed in hoQ Mel am sifiiip 
sequutus erat, qui propteiisdem verbis , lib, 1. cap. 11. recitavit. Et ex kac Gpinione vi- 
fietur emanesse ut multi scriptores Syriam et Assyriam permisceant ac confundantX Cel¬ 
lar. Geog. Antiq. lib. iii. cap. 12. p. 398. Lips. 1706. 
l (<s) Histor. Geog. of tire Old and New 'Test, vol, IX, p. T39. Oxf. t$0L 
