Page 132.—_A dreary waste._] “After some hours travel you arrive at the mountainous desert into which our blessed Saviour was led, to be tempted by the devil. A most miserable, dry, barren place it is, consisting of high rocky mountains, so torn and disordered as if the earth had here suffered some great convulsion, in which its very bowels had been turned outward. On the left hand, looking down in a deep valley as we passed along, we saw some ruins of small cells and cottages, which they told us were formerly the habitations of hermits, retiring hither for penance and mortification. And certainly there could not be found in the whole earth a more comfortless and abandoned place for that purpose. From the top of these hills of desolation, however, we had a delightful prospect of the mountains of Arabia, the Dead Sea, and the plain of Jericho.” Maundrell, p. 80. The reader will observe with what propriety this region has been chosen for the scene of the parable of the good Samaritan. See Buckingham, 292. Page 134.—_Valour of the Essenes._] Philo (Op. 877.) represents them as holding war in the utmost abhorrence, and never fabricating any instrument which could be employed in it. Josephus praises (Bell. Jud. ii. 8. 10.) the constancy which they displayed in the Roman war, but it was in enduring torture. He speaks of them, however, as carrying swords for their defence against thieves; and Philo mentions that the Therapeutæ united for mutual protection, if their settlements were attacked. Op. 893. Page 138.—_Oasis of the Essenes._] It is placed in this neighbourhood on the authority of Pliny, who represents them as living near the Dead Sea, on the western side, but at such a distance as to avoid the effects of the pestilential effluvia. N. H. v. 17. Page 138.—_The books of doctrine and the names of the angels._] Συντηρήσειν ὁμοίως τάτε τῆς αἱρέσεως αὐτῶν βιβλία καὶ τὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων ὀνόματα. Jos. Bell. Jud. ii. 17. Thus rendered by Prideaux, “to preserve with equal care the books containing the doctrine of their sect, and the names of the _messengers_ by whose hands they were written and conveyed to them.” Page 140.—_Seated themselves at table._] This was the primitive custom of the Jews, (as of the heroic times of Greece, Athen. lib. i. p. 11.) See Gen. xxvii. 19. 1 Sam. xx. 5. 24, Amos ii. 8. is the first passage of Scripture in which the recumbent posture is mentioned. Page 141.—_No women were to be seen._] “Gens sola, et in toto orbe præter ceteras mira sine ullâ feminâ, omni venere abdicatâ, sine pecuniâ, socia palmarum. In diem ex æquo convenarum turbâ renascitur, large frequentantibus quos vita fessos ad mores eorum fortunæ fluctus agitat. Ita per seculorum millia, incredibile dictu gens æterna est in qua nemo nascitur.” Plin. N. H. v. 17.