ADVERTISEMENT.

WHAT is personal in this book may be briefly told. In the winter of 1852, and in the spring of 1853, in the company of three friends,* to whose kindness I shall always feel grateful for having enabled me to fulfil this long-cherished design, I visited the well-known scenes of Sacred History in Egypt, Arabia, and Syria. Any detailed description of this journey has been long since rendered superfluous by the ample illustrations of innumerable travellers. But its interest and instruction are. so manifold, that, even after all which has been seen and said of it, there still remain points of view unexhausted.

Much has been written, and still remains to be written, both on the History and the Geography of the Chosen People. But there have been comparatively few attempts to illustrate the relation in which each stands to the other. To bring the recollections of my own journey to bear on this question, to point out how much or how little the Bible gains by being seen, so to speak, through the eyes of the country, or the country by being seen through the eyes of the Bible,-to exhibit the effect of the Holy

* I trust that I may be permitted to name Mr. Walrond, Mr. Fremantle, and Mr. Findlay.

Land' on the course of the Holy History,'-seemed to be a task not hitherto fully accomplished. To point out the limits of this connection will be the object of the following Preface.

As a general rule, it has been my endeavour, on the one hand, to omit no geographical feature which throws any direct light on the history or the poetry of the sacred volume; and, on the other hand, to insert no descriptions except those which have such a purpose, and to dwell on no passages of Scripture except those which are capable of such an illustration. The form of narrative has thus been merged in that of dissertation, following the course of historical and geographical divisions. Whenever I have given extracts from journals or letters, it has been when it seemed necessary to retain the impression not merely of the scene, but of the moment. Only in a few instances, chiefly confined to notes, the main course of the argument has been interrupted in order to describe in greater detail particular spots, which have not been noticed in previous accounts. I have, as much as possible, avoided the controverted points of sacred topography, both because they mostly relate to spots which throw no direct light on the history, and also because they depend for their solution on data which are not yet fully before us.

The Maps have been framed with the intention of giving not merely the physical features, but the actual colouring offered to the eye of the traveller at the present time. In the use of the geographical terms of the Old and New Testament, I have aimed at a greater precision than has been reached or perhaps attempted in the Authorised Version; and have thrown into an Appendix a catalogue of such words as a help to a not unimportant field of

philological and geographical study. For the arrangement of this Appendix, as well as for the general verification of references and correction of the press I am indebted to the careful revision of my friend, Mr. Grove, of Sydenham. Throughout the work I have freely used all materials within my reach to fill up the deficiencies necessarily left by the hasty and imperfect character of my personal observation. It is unnecessary to describe more particularly the nature of these sources; they are mostly given in the long catalogues of writers affixed to Robinson's Biblical Researches,' and Ritter's volumes on Sinai, Palestine, and Syria; and I may perhaps be allowed to refer for a general estimate of their relative value to an Essay on an Essay on 'Sacred Geography' in the Quarterly Review for March, 1854.

Finally, I have to express my deep sense of all that I owe to my friend and fellow-traveller Mr. Theodore Walrond, Fellow of Balliol College, Oxford. Without him the journey, to which I shall always look back as one of the most instructive periods of my life, would in all pro bability never have been accomplished on his accurate observation and sound judgment I have constantly relied, both on the spot and since; and, though I have touched too slightly on Egypt to avail myself of his knowledge and study of the subject where it would have been most valuable, I feel that his kind supervision of the rest of the volume gives a strong guarantee for the faithful representation of the scenes which we explored together, and of the conclusions to be derived from them.

PREFACE.

THE CONNECTION OF SACRED HISTORY AND SACRED GEOGRAPHY.

THE historical interest of Sacred Geography, though belonging in various degrees to Mesopotamia, Egypt, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy, is, like the Sacred History itself, concentrated on the Peninsula of Sinai and on Palestine. Even in its natural aspect the topography of these two countries has features which would of themselves rivet our attention; and on these, as the basis of all further inquiry, and as compared with similar features of other parts of the world, I have dwelt at some length.' But to this singular conformation we have to add the fact that it has been the scene of the most important events in the history of mankind; and not only so, but that the very fact of this local connection has occasioned a reflux of interest, another stage of history, which intermingles itself with the scenes of the older events, thus producing a tissue of local associations unrivalled in its length and complexity. Grecce and Italy have geographical charms of a high order. But they have never provoked a Crusade; and, however bitter may

See Chapters I. II. VII. and XII.

have been the disputes of antiquaries about the Acropolis of Athens or the Forum of Rome, they have never, as at Bethlehem and Jerusalem, become matters of religious controversy grounds for interpreting old prophecies or producing new ones-cases for missions of diplomatists, or for the war of civilised nations.

This interest in Sacred Geography, though in some respects repelled, yet in some respects is invited by the Scriptures themselves. From Genesis to the Apocalypse there are even when not intending, nay, even when deprecating, any stress on the local associations of the events recorded-constant local allusions, such as are the natural result of a faithful, and, as is often the case in the Biblical narrative, of a contemporary history. There is one document in the Hebrew Scriptures to which probably no parallel exists in the topographical records of any other ancient nation. In the Book of Joshua we have what may without offence be termed the Domesday Book of the conquest of Canaan. Ten chapters of that book are devoted to a description of the country, in which not only are its general features and boundaries carefully laid down, but the names and situations of its towns and villages enumerated with a precision of geographical terms which invites and almost compels a compels a minute investigation. The numerous allusions in the Prophetical writings supply what in other countries would be furnished by the illustrations of poets and orators. The topographical indications of the New Testament, it is true, are exceedingly slight; and if it were not for the occurrence of the same names in the Old Testament or Josephus, it would often be impossible to identify them. But what the New Testament loses