334 
CLARKE'S TRAVELS. 
equal exactness.* Among others, should be mentioned the 
place where the cross was found ; because the identity of the 
timber, which has since supplied all Christendom with its 
relics,f was confirmed by a miracle,|—proof equally infallible 
with tliat afforded by the eagle at the tomb of T heseus, in the ! 
isle of Scyra, when Ciraon the Athenian sought the bones of 
the son of Aegeus. $ 
It is time to quit these degrading fallacies: let us break 
from our Monkish instructors; and, instead of viewing Jeru¬ 
salem as pilgrims, examine it by the light of history, with the 
Bible in our hands. We shall thus find many interesting ob¬ 
jects of contemplation. If Mount Calvary has sunk beneath 
the overwhelming influence of superstition, studiously endea¬ 
vouring to modify and to disfigure it, through so many ages ; 
if the situation of Mount Sion yet remains to be ascertain¬ 
ed :|| the Mount of Olives, undisguised by fanatical labours, 
exhibits the appearance it presented in all the periods of its 
history. From its elevated summit almost all the principal 
features of the city may be discerned, and the changes that 
eighteen centuries have wrought in its topography may per¬ 
haps be ascertained. The features of nature continue the same, 
though works of art have been done away: the beautiful gate 
of the temple is no more; but Biloa’s fountain haply flows, 
and Kedroo sometimes murmurs in the valley of Jehosaphat.** 
It was this resolve, and the determination of using our owe 
eyes, instead of peering through the spectacles of priests, that 
led to the discovery of antiquities uiidescribed by any author; 
and marvellous it is, considering their magnitude, and the 
scrutinizing inquiry w hich has been so often directed to every 
object of the place, that these antiquities have hitherto escaped 
* These designs tv ere first cut for Cotovieus.- in brass; and re-engraved, on the 
same metal, for Sandys. 
t Another time he was telling of an old signpost that belonged to his father, 
with nails and timber enough in it to build sixteen large men of war.” Tale of a Tub. 
See Swift’s Works, voi. 1. p. 79. Edinfr. 17-8]. 
t The Jews, being tortured, by the doting old empress and her priests, to make 
known, three hundred years after the crucifixon, the situation of our Saviour’s 
cross, contrived at last to produce three crosses. This caused a woful dilemma, 
a3 it was not easy to ascertain which of those three belonged to our Saviour 
M acarius, bishop of Jerusalem, soon decided this point, by touching the body of a 
woman who had “ an incurable disorder” with these crosses. Her miraculous cure 
made known “ the true, cross.” Bee Sandys,p. 169. Lend. 1637. 
C Plutarch, in Thes, ' 
li See Reland, Falsest Illust. tom. II. pp. 845, 846, et seq. Traj. Eat. 1714. 
“ Torrens hie est vero nomine, quam aestivo tempore Rumen esse desinat, et 
Eornen habeat, adeoque sicco pede transeatur.” Relaridi Fab Jilust* tom. X, p. 294, 
lib.A. cap. 45, 
