Interest attached to the History of Palestine; Remarkable Character of the
Hebrew People; Their small Beginning and astonishing Increase; The Variety
of Fortune they underwent; Their constant Attachment to the Promised Land;
The Subject presents an interesting Problem to the Historian and
Politician; The Connexion with Christianity; Effect of this Religion on
the Progress of Society; Importance of the Subject to the pious Reader;
Holy Places; Pilgrims; Grounds for believing the ancient Traditions on
this Head; Constantine and the Empress Helena; Relics; Natural Scenery;
Extent of Canaan; Fertility; Geographical Distribution; Countries eastward
of the Jordan; Galilee; Bethlehem; Samaria; Jericho; The Dead Sea; Table
representing the Possessions of the Twelve Tribes.

The country to which the name of Palestine is given by moderns is that
portion of the Turkish empire in Asia which is comprehended within the
31st and 34th degrees north latitude, and extends from the Mediterranean
to the Syrian Desert, eastward of the river Jordan and the Dead Sea.
Whether viewed as the source of our religions faith; or as the most
ancient fountain of our historical knowledge, this singular spot of earth
has at all times been regarded with feelings of the deepest interest and
curiosity. Inhabited for many ages by a people entitled above all others
to the distinction of peculiar, it presents a record of events such as
have not come to pass in any other land, monuments of a belief denied to
all other nations, hopes not elsewhere cherished, but which, nevertheless,
are connected with the destiny of the whole human race, and stretch
forward to the consummation of all terrestrial things.

To the eye of mere philosophy nothing can appear more striking than the
events produced upon the world at large by the opinions and events which
originated among the Jewish people. A pastoral family, neither so