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PREFACE

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THE THIRD EDITION.

In the two former impressions, some account was given of the motives which induced the author of the annexed letters to submit any part of his correspondence to the press. The very flattering manner in which they have been since mentioned by certain of the periodical journalists,-whose favourable opinions stamp a currency on whatever has the fortune to receive any measure of their approbation,-will, it is hoped, be considered as some justification of the writer's intentions, and preclude the necessity of further apology. He is, however, anxious to state that an earnest attention has been applied to the revision of those points, which were considered not

sufficiently explicit, or which had more peculiarly attracted the corrective notice of criticism.

He takes this opportunity to offer a few observations on the practicability of an excursion through the Holy Land.

A traveller who addresses his friends from a remote quarter of the globe, naturally feels desirous to conceal, or at least to extenuate most of the severer difficulties with which he has had to contend: but on his return, it is expected that his narrative should contain a faithful representation of whatever he has known or seen.

To say nothing of the inevitable rigours of QUARANTINE, continued during a detention which sometimes exceeds six weeks, and which may with no great impropriety be termed an imprisonment, there are inconveniences of a harsher nature, which the tourist will do well to reflect on before he sets out on his career. Every one who contemplates

a journey through Syria and the distant sections of Arabia, should be prepared, in the military phrase, to "rough it;" for he will be occasionally subjected to the extremities of heat and thirst,-to the varied privations of hunger and disease,-to make the sands of the desert his bed, and the dews of Heaven his covering. Vermine the most loathsome, or venomous, will beset him in almost all his paths; and in addition to many minor obstructions, he may from time to time be exposed to the capricious tyranny and arbitrary exaction of local authorities. Finally, he is liable to seizure by armed marauders, who sometimes strip their wretched victim of every particle of personal clothing, and then turn him adrift,a naked wanderer in a burning wilderness!

From this last mentioned severity the writer of the following pages was happily exempted. The statement may however be relied on as very otherwise than overcharged. It is given with no view to exaggerate the hazards incidental to a pilgrimage in Palestine

but solely to put the reader in possession of what he may possibly have to encounter, should he be induced to extend his researches. Much of the gratification derivable from such a tour will necessarily depend on the personal feeling of the individual who undertakes it. Those who cannot

"Look on Ida with a TROJAN's eye,"

might walk indifferent and unmoved" over the beautiful plain of the Troad: and such as are insensible to the charms of the Sacred Writings, would contemplate in "Sion's Hill" only a blighted mountain, nor discover any thing beyond a scanty streamlet in

"SILOA'S BROOK, THAT FLOW'D

FAST BY THE ORACLE OF GOD!"

Paris, June, 1821.

The present publication has been retarded by a variety of unexpected incidents. The Editor trusts his distance from the press may be considered as some apology for the few typographical errors which appear towards the close of the first volume.

December 12, 1821.

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