The Quarterly Review (Volume 69) (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1842. Excerpt: ... Art. V.--Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai, and Arabia Petrcea, fyc. By Edward Robinson, D.D.. Professor of Biblical Literature in the Union Theological Seminary, New York. WE opened this work with a feeling of weary despondency at the prospect of three more volumes of Travels in Palestine: we closed them with respect and gratitude to the author, not unmingled with a little blameless national jealousy. We are not altogether pleased that for the best and most copious work on the geography and antiquities of the Holy Land, though written in English, we should be indebted to an American divine. The interest of Palestine and its neighbouring provinces is, and must ever be, inexhaustible--the Palestine of the patriarchs, where the pastoral ancestors of the Jews, having been summoned from Mesopotamia, settled with their flocks and herds among the agricultural tribes of its earlier inhabitants -- the Palestine of the chosen people, with all their solemn and eventful history--the Palestine of our Lord and his Apostles--the Palestine of Josephus, with the awful wars which ended with the abomination of desolation in the Holy City--the Palestine of the early pilgrimages, of Jerome and his monastic companions--the Palestine of the crusades, of Godfrey of Bouillon, of Richard Cceur de Lion, and of Saladin; we may descend still lower--of Napoleon, of Sir Sidney Smith, and of more recent British heroes: in every period, or rather throughout the whole course of time, this hallowed and marvellous country is connected with recollections which belong to the unlearned as well as the learned, to the simple as to the wise. Every scene has its sanctity or its peculiar stirring emotions; every name awakens some association of wonder, of reverence, or, at least, of laudable curiosity. We must co...