to the welfare of their own community, subservient to the designs of ambition or conducive to the interests of the world. The wish to ascertain the state of knowledge and the progress of the arts and sciences, for the purposes of comparison and improvement, would necessarily lead to the study of geography. Commerce, and that spirit of adventure which it produces, would operate amongst the first causes of geographical research. It can scarcely be necessary to advert to the utility and importance of geography.

It is a department of science the knowledge of which is almost constantly requisite. It is necessary to the proper understanding of history, and without some acquaintance with it the periodical publications and ordinary journals of the day can scarcely be intelligible. It is highly important to the traveller, the mariner, and the merchant. To the statesman a comprehensive knowledge of geography is of the highest importance. If he understand not the situation of countries, their laws and customs, and the diseases to which they are subject, he cannot direct the movements of armies with success; and so far from effecting what is honourable and glorious to his country, they may

perish in inaccessible forests or pestilential

morasses.

Geography forms one of the most interesting amusements. It is with delight we follow the traveller through woods and deserts, over rocks and mountains.

We sympathize with him in his perils and toils, we ascend the lofty eminence in his company, and in imagination view with him the meandering streams, the silvery rivers, the ivymantled towers, which have for ages withstood the ravages of time, and whose stately porticoes, mouldering columns, and ruined arches, remain as relics of former grandeur. But the study of geography not only gratifies the taste for the romantic and picturesque; it not merely presents to us rocks and glens, the sandy desert and the cloud capt mount; but it brings us acquainted with men and cities, states and empires. But the proposed subject of this Essay necessarily restricts us within narrower limits, and we proceed to consider more particularly the Geography of the Holy Scriptures.

I think it unnecessary to state, much less, to elucidate, the difficulties which are to be found with respect to the situation of

the garden of Eden, and the particular parts of the globe, referred to in the account given of the dispersion of the sons of Noah, which is recorded in the tenth chapter of Genesis. When scholars of great research and intelligence have laboured to little purpose, would, on my part, be vain and presumptuous to attempt the elucidation. Were I to undertake to describe every country incidentally mentioned in the scriptures, I should embrace, in the range of enquiry, a great part of the Roman Empire. Nor can every place in Palestine be described, as some are scarcely worthy of notice, and of others no satisfactory account can be given, but what is derived from unauthentic traditions and legendary tales. We propose first to consider the Names, Extent, Original Population, and Present State of the Holy Land; and afterwards to consider its Physical Aspect, its Mountains, Vallies, its Rivers, Productions, and Natural History.

This country has in different ages been called by various names, derived either from its inhabitants, or from extraordinary circumstances that have taken place in it. The country occupied by the Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews is often styled in Scripture, "the land," " the country,"

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"the earth.” It has been more particularly called

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1." The land of Canaan ;"-Canaan was the youngest son of Ham. He settled there and divided his country between his eleven children, each of whom became the founder of a numerous tribe, and ultimately the head of a distinct nation.

2. "The Land of Promise," on account of Jehovah's promise to Abraham that he should possess it.

3. "The Land of Israel," from the Israelites, the posterity of Jacob having settled there; and "the Land of Judah," which was at first applied to that portion only of Judah, which belonged to the tribe of Judah; but that tribe became so powerful, and so excelled the rest in dignity and valour, as at last to give name to the whole country.

4. Palestine. The whole land appears to have been called by this name in the days of Moses. It is derived from the Philistines, a warlike people, who settled on the banks of the Mediterranean Sea, expelled the former inhabitants, and became so powerful as to give name to the whole land, although they in fact possessed only a small part of it. The appel

lation of the " Holy Land" is conferred on it by all Christians for the remarkable occurrences which took place there, for its being the hallowed ground on which the temple stood, where the prophets denounced the dreadful vengeance of Deity, or hailed the approach of the great Redeemer, and it is rendered particularly holy on account of the sufferings of Christ, his crucifixion, burial, and resurtion.

The extent of the Holy Land has been variously estimated, but from the latest and most accurate maps, it appears to have extended nearly two hundred miles in length, and its greatest breadth to have been nearly eighty miles. By the Abrahamic Covenant recorded in Genesis xxxiv. the original grant of the promised land is specified to be from "the river of Egypt to the river Euphrates." The boundaries of it are thus described by Moses. "And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying,

"Command the children of Israel, and say unto the children of Israel, When ye come into the land of Canaan, this shall be the land that shall fall unto you for an inheritance, even the land of Canaan with the coasts thereof: