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hangings of the sanctuary, and thus communicating infection to the whole town: because, all who entered, saluted these hangings with their lips. Many of those unhappy patients believed themselves to be secure, from the moment when they were brought within the walls of this building, although in the last stage of the disorder. As we passed towards the church, one of the friars, rapidly conducting us, pointed to some invalids who had recently exhibited marks of the infection: these men were then sitting upon the bare earth, in cells, around the court-yard of the Convent, waiting for a miraculous recovery. The sight of infected persons so near to us rather checked our curiosity; but it was too late to render ourselves more secure by retreating. We had been told, that if we chose to venture into the church, the doors of the Convent would be opened; and therefore had determined to risk a little danger, rather than be disappointed; particularly as it was said the sick were kept apart, in a place expressly allotted to them. We now began to be sensible we had acted without sufficient caution; and it is well we had not good reason afterwards to repent of our imprudence.

CHAP.

IV.

CHAP.

IV.

Having entered the church, the friars put burning wax tapers into our hands; and, charging us on no account to touch any thing, led the way, muttering their prayers. We descended, by a flight of steps, into the cave before mentioned; entering, by means of a small door, behind an altar laden with pictures, wax candles, and all sorts of superstitious trumpery. They pointed out to us what they called the kitchen and the fire-place of the Virgin Mary. As all these sanctified places, in the Holy Land, contain some supposed miracle for exhibition, the monks of Nazareth have taken care not to Pretended be without their share in supernatural rarities; accordingly, the first thing they shew to strangers who descend into this cave, are two stone pillars in the front of it; one of which, separated from its base, is said to sustain its capital and a part of its shaft miraculously in the air. The fact is, that the capital and a piece of the shaft of a pillar of grey granite have been fastened on to the roof of the cave; and so clumsily is the rest of the hocus pocus contrived, that what is shewn for the lower fragment of the same pillar resting upon the earth, is not of the same substance, but of Cipolino marble. About this pillar a different story has been related to

Miracle.

almost every traveller, since the trick was first devised. Maundrell, and Egmont and Heyman, were told, that it was broken by a Pasha, in search of hidden treasure, who was struck with blindness for his impiety3. We were assured that it separated in this manner when the Angel announced to the Virgin the tidings of her conception. The monks had placed a rail, to prevent persons infected with the plague from coming to rub against these pillars: this had been for many years their constant practice, whenever afflicted with any sickness. The reputation of the broken pillar for healing every kind of disease prevails all over Galilee.

It is from extravagances of this kind, constituting a complete system of low mercenary speculation and priesteraft and priesteraft throughout this country, that devout, but weak men, unable to

(1) Journ. from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 113. Oxf. 1721.

(2) Travels through Europe, Asia, &c. vol. II. p. 17. Lond. 1759. (3) A story of a similar nature is related by Bernardin Surius, who was President of the Holy Sepulchre, and Commissary of the Holy Land, during four years, about the middle of the 17th century. He ascribes the fracture to a Magrebin. "Ce fut un de ces Magrebins qui fit rompre à Nazareth la colomne qui est posée à la place où estoit la S. Vierge lorsqu'elle conçeut le Fils de Dieu." Le Pieux Pelerin, par Le Père Surius, p. 246. Brusselles, 1666.

(4) Luke i. 28.

(5) Travels through Europe, Asia, &c. vol. II. p. 17. Lond. 1759.

CHAP.

IV.

IV.

CHAP. discriminate between monkish mummery and simple truth, have considered the whole series. of topographical evidence as one tissue of imposture, and have left the Holy Land worse Christians than they were when they arrived. Credulity and scepticism are neighbouring extremes: whosoever wholly abandons either of these, generally adopts the other. It is hardly possible to view the mind of man in a more forlorn and degraded state than when completely subdued by superstition; yet this view of it is presented over a very considerable portion of the earth; over all Asia, Africa, almost all America, and more than two-thirds of Europe: indeed, it is difficult to say where society exists without betraying some or other of its modifications; nor can there be suggested a more striking proof of the natural propensity in human nature towards this mental infirmity, than that Christianity itself, the only effectual enemy superstition ever had, should have been chosen for its basis. In the Holy Land, as in Russia, and perhaps in Spain and Portugal, the Gospel is only known by representations more foreign from its tenets than the worship of the sun and the moon. If a country which was once so disgraced by the feuds of a religious war should ever become the theatre of honourable

and holy contest, it will be at that period when Reason and Revelation

shall exter

Those who

minate ignorance and superstition.
peruse the following pages, will perhaps find
it difficult to credit the degree of profanation
which true religion has here sustained. While
Europeans are sending messengers, the heralds
of civilization, to propagate the Gospel in the
remotest regions, the very land whence that
Gospel originated is suffered to remain as a
nursery of superstition for surrounding nations;
where voluntary pilgrims, from all parts of the
earth, (men warmly devoted to the cause of
religion, and more capable of disseminating the
lessons they receive than the most zealous
missionaries,) are daily instructed in the grossest.
errors. Surely the task of converting such
persons, already more than half disposed to-
wards a due comprehension of the truths of
Christianity, were a less-arduous undertaking,
than that of withdrawing from their prejudices,
and heathenish propensities, the savages of
America and of India. As it now is, the pilgrims
return back to their respective countries, either
divested of the religious opinions which they
once entertained, or more than ever shackled
by the trammels of superstition. In their
journey through the Holy Land, they are

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