FROM ACHE TO NAZARETH* 
Caiiphoruia 01 New Holland. A series of legendary tradi¬ 
tions, mingled with remains of Judaism, and the wretched 
phantasies of illiterate ascetics, may now and then exhibit a 
glimmering of heavenly light; but if we seek for the blessed 
effects of Christianity in the land of Canaan, we must look for 
that period, when “ the desert shall blossom as the rose, and 
the w ilderness become a fruitful field.” For this reason we 
had early resolved to make the sacred Scriptures our only 
guide throughout this interesting territory ; and the delight af¬ 
forded by the internal evidences of truth, in every instance 
w here their fidelity of description was proved by a comparison 
with existing documents, surpassed even all we had anticipa¬ 
ted.* Such extraordinary instances of coincidence, even with 
the customs of the country as they are now exhibited, and so 
many wonderful examples of illustration afforded by contrast¬ 
ing the simple narrative with the appearances presented, made 
ns only regret the shortness of our time, and the limited sphere 
of our abilities for the comparison. When the original compi- 
lerf of “ Observations on various passages of scripture” un-, 
dertook to place them in a new light, and to explain their 
meaning by relations incidently mentioned in books of Voy¬ 
ages and Travels into the East, he was struck by communica¬ 
tions the authors of those books were themselves not aware of 
haying made ; and it is possible, his commentators may discern 
similar instances in the brief record of our journey. But if the 
travellers who have visited this country (and many of them 
were men of more than ordinary talents) had been allowed full 
leisure for the inquiry, or had merely stated w hat they might 
have derived solely from a view of the country, abstracted from 
the consideration and detail of the lamentable mummery where¬ 
by the monks in all the convents have gratified the credulity 
of every traveller for so many centuries, and which in their 
subsequent relations they seem to have copied from each other* 
we should have had the means of elucidating the sacred wri¬ 
tings, perhaps in every instance, w here the meaning has been 
“ not determinable by the methods commonly used by learned 
men.”}: 
* Scio equidem multa loca falsoostendi ab hominibus lucri avidis per universam 
Palaestinam; ac si baec et ilia miranda opera ibi patrata fuissent, sed hoc tamen negari 
non potest, aliqua sane certosciri.” Relandi Palaestina, cap. iv. in Thesaur. Antiq, 
Sacrar. Ugolini, vol. vi. Venet. 1746. 
t The Rev. Thomas Harmer. See the different editions*of his work, 1764, 1771, 
1787; and especially the fourth, published in 1808, by Hr. Adam Clarke. 
| See the title to the work above baentioaech 
