Early travels in Palestine, comprising the narratives of Arculf, Willibald, Bernard, Sæwulf, Sigurd, Benjamin of Tudela, Sir John Maundeville, de la Brocquière, and Maundrell / Edited ... by Thomas Wright.

Date:
1848
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Early travels in Palestine, comprising the narratives of Arculf, Willibald, Bernard, Sæwulf, Sigurd, Benjamin of Tudela, Sir John Maundeville, de la Brocquière, and Maundrell / Edited ... by Thomas Wright. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    • • • tlieir wanderings, as they have themselves described them to us, and to watch their feelings and hear their opinions. The human mind is one of those important objects of study that Ave can never look upon from too many standing-places. But there is another point of view in which the narratives of the early pilgrims, of which so many have been preserved, are perhaps still more interesting. That favoured land to which thev re- late, the scene of so many events of deep import to our liap- piness in this world and in the future, has never lost its at- tractions, and more steps, as well as more eyes, are now turned towards it, than in those so-called ages of faith, Avhen every mile on the road Avas belieA^ed to count in heaven for so much tOAvards the redemption of the past crimes and offences, however great, of the traveller. Pilgrims innumerable still Ausit the holy places, Avith a purer faith and a less prejudiced understanding, yet Avith the desire of knoAving Avhat others in past ages saAv, Avhich is noAV not to he seen, or Avhich is seen under different circumstances; to knoAv Avhat they thought of objects Avhich still offer themselves to view; and to trace in their successive obserA^ations and reflections the gradual develop- ment of a thirst for discovery and knoAAdedge Avhich has at length given them the power of being so much Aviser than their forefathers. It was the interest created by the objects these pilgrims visited personally, and the curiosity excited by the vague information obtained from intercourse AAdth men Avho came from parts still more distant, that laid the first founda- tion of geographical science, and that first gave the impulse to geographical discovery. A comparison of the numerous narratives to Avhich Ave allude, places before our eyes the most distinct vieAv we can possibly have of the various changes Avhich have swept over the land ot Palestine since it Avas snatched from the poAA'er of the Ptoman emperors. The more ancient are, of course, the mostinteresting,because they relate to a period Avhen afar greater number of monuments of still earlier antiquity remained in ex- istence than it has been the lot of any modern pilgrims to visit, and the traditions of the locality were then much more deserv’- ing of attention, because they vA^ere so much nearer to the time of the events to which they related. It can hardly be sup- l)osed that the Christian inhabitants of Jerusalem and its neighbourhood, under the Pomans, did not preserve some