The zeal for making proselytes, by which Israel was distinguished, may be easily accounted for. Accustomed, for nearly two thousand years, to believe, and on no less authority than that of God himself, that salvation should proceed from them, and in them all nations of the earth be blessed, they could not for a moment relinquish the desire of carrying this prediction into effect; at this time they were more peculiarly urged to it by the openly expressed veneration or secret acquiescence of the wisest men. Religious faith, although the most deeply seated in the breast of any of our sentiments, is, singular as it may appear, that which we are most eager in communicating to others. Whatever too has been long suppressed, breaks forth with redoubled force when the obstacle is removed. Besides, the religious sentiments of the Jews were not, like those of the heathens, the speculations of human reason, but _truths_, confirmed by the sanction of God; and their zeal in making proselytes was not the vain desire to swell the numbers of a sect, but to deliver those who were under the dominion of error. Myron and our travellers took leave of each other, in the hope of meeting after a few months. He went through the camp to seek for company as far as Tyre, and they took the road to Hebron. From Gaza two roads conduct to Jerusalem. One passes by Eleutheropolis and the plain of Sephela; the other through the hills by Hebron. Although the former was the easier and more customary, Elisama preferred the latter. He had a friend in Hebron, whom he had not seen for many years, and in whose company he wished to perform the pilgrimage; and he was desirous of making Helon’s first entrance into the Land of Promise as solemn and impressive as possible. By taking the easier road, they must have gone a long way through the country of the Philistines, and not have been joined by pilgrims, till they reached Morescheth, and then only in small numbers. On the other road, they entered immediately on the Jewish territory, and their way conducted them through scenes adorned with many an historical remembrance. They had not proceeded far inward from the sea, in the direction of the river Besor, when they reached the confines of Judah; they stood at the foot of its hills, and the land of the heathen lay behind them. Helon seemed to feel for the first time what home and native country mean. In Egypt, where he had been born and bred, he had been conscious of no such feeling; for he had been taught to regard himself as only a sojourner there. Into this unknown, untrodden native country he was about to enter, and before he set his foot upon it, at the first sight of it, the breeze seemed to waft from its hills a welcome to his home. “Land of my fathers,” he exclaimed, “Land of Promise, promised to me also from my earliest years!” and quickened his steps to reach it. He felt the truth of the saying, that Israel is Israel only in the Holy Land. “Here,” said