DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12665#0232
216 INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL.
though [ might be deceived by my own imagina-
tion and the glowing descriptions of travellers, I
would at least have the merit of not deceiving
others. The sepulchre of Christ is too holy a thing
to be made the subject of trickery and deception;
and I am persuaded that it would be far better for
the interests of Christianity, that it had remained
for ever locked up in the hands of the Turks, and
all access to it been denied to Christian feet.
But I was not disposed to cavil. It was far
easier, and suited my humour far better, to take
things as I found them} and in this spirit, under
the guidance of a monk and accompanied by a pro-
cession of pilgrims, I wandered through the streets
of Jerusalem ; visited the Pool of Bethesda, where
David saw Bathsheba bathing ; the five porches
where the sick were brought to be healed ; the
house of Simon the Pharisee, where Mary Mag-
dalen confessed her sins ; the prison of St. Peter ;
the house of Mary the mother of Mark ; the man-
sion of Dives and the house of Lazarus (which,
by-the-way, not to be skeptical again, did not look
as if its tenant had ever lain at its neighbour's gate,
and begged for the " crumbs which fell from the
rich man's table"); and entering the Via Dolorosa,
the way by which the Saviour passed from the
judgment-hall of Pilate to Calvary, saw the spot
where the people laid hold of Simon the Cyrene,
and compelled him to bear the cross ; three differ-
ent stones on which Christ, fainting, sat down to
rest; passed under the arch called Ecce homo%
though [ might be deceived by my own imagina-
tion and the glowing descriptions of travellers, I
would at least have the merit of not deceiving
others. The sepulchre of Christ is too holy a thing
to be made the subject of trickery and deception;
and I am persuaded that it would be far better for
the interests of Christianity, that it had remained
for ever locked up in the hands of the Turks, and
all access to it been denied to Christian feet.
But I was not disposed to cavil. It was far
easier, and suited my humour far better, to take
things as I found them} and in this spirit, under
the guidance of a monk and accompanied by a pro-
cession of pilgrims, I wandered through the streets
of Jerusalem ; visited the Pool of Bethesda, where
David saw Bathsheba bathing ; the five porches
where the sick were brought to be healed ; the
house of Simon the Pharisee, where Mary Mag-
dalen confessed her sins ; the prison of St. Peter ;
the house of Mary the mother of Mark ; the man-
sion of Dives and the house of Lazarus (which,
by-the-way, not to be skeptical again, did not look
as if its tenant had ever lain at its neighbour's gate,
and begged for the " crumbs which fell from the
rich man's table"); and entering the Via Dolorosa,
the way by which the Saviour passed from the
judgment-hall of Pilate to Calvary, saw the spot
where the people laid hold of Simon the Cyrene,
and compelled him to bear the cross ; three differ-
ent stones on which Christ, fainting, sat down to
rest; passed under the arch called Ecce homo%