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benefit , and most profitless portions of our globe ? So he may ask , who casts a hasty glance on these tracts of country . However , if he remains there for a short time , without being" terrified by the burning sun and the whirling sand , * if he looks around him with attention , he will in this solitary wilderness discover evidence of the truth , that the Creator has not made any thing- in vain , and that there is no place upon the earth , which nature has not fitted to be the habitation of some animal . " This traveller was no careless spectator of the customs , any more than of the scenery and natural productions , of the countries which he explored . He was deeply impressed by the characteristic superstition of the inhabitants , of which he records the following example :
" Nearly through the whole of the East , the people believe that if a stranger sees their silk-worms ,, all hope of success is lost . For this reason , I could never gain a sight of any of these insects until May 18—not at Smyrna , nor on my travels in Natolia and the Archipelago , where silk is produced . In every garden round Seide [ the ancient Sidon ] is a rude hut , in which silkworms are contained and spin . My servant , a venturous Armenian , procured me an opportunity of entering one of these huts , where I beheld this remarkable worm , so well known and esteemed in the East , and so calculated to be the object of exhaustless admiration . ''
I could with ease multiply such extracts from the Travels of Hasselquist . Nor would it be a laborious task to select numerous passages in which his remarks serve to elucidate statements and references in the Scriptures . Yet , after the judicious services of Harmer , &c , this attempt is not particularlyrequisite ; and my wishes will be fully answered , if I can engage any of my readers , and those of them especially who are critical students of the Old and the New Testament , to make themselves acquainted with Hasselquist ' s life and writings . There have been travellers and residents in the East , who have remained there for a much longer time , and whose stores of literature have been far more ample than his : there are scarcely any whose observations have been equally scientific , accurate , and faithful . The English translation f of his Voyages , &c , ( 1766 , ) might with great advantage be revised , and illustrated by notes . It is not possible to conclude this imperfect Memoir of Hasselquist , without adverting to the uncommon zeal and effect with which the Northern courts of Europe have patronized undertakings for the growth of the knowledge of Natural History : " These are imperial works , and worthy kings . " Hob tibi erunt artes /— N .
• Jahn's Biblis . Arch . ( 1818 ) , Th . B . ii . 349 . t It was made by a foreigner from the original Swedish . Linnaeus translated the work iuto German .
Untitled Article
Memoirs of the Life end Writings of Frederick Hassetquist . 221
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1830, page 221, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2583/page/5/
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