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[Pg 528]
Now ready, in Four Volumes, demy 8vo, price 32s., handsomely bound in cloth,
THE COMPARATIVE GEOGRAPHY
OF
PALESTINE
AND THE
SINAITIC PENINSULA.
By CARL RITTER,
PROFESSOR OF GEOGRAPHY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF BERLIN.
Translated and Adapted to the use of Biblical Students, by
WILLIAM L. GAGE.
CARL RITTER, the late Professor of Geography in the University of Berlin, is known by name to many who are comparatively uninformed respecting the extent and value of his labours. In portraying the connection of geography with the physical sciences, Alexander von Humboldt had no superior; while in establishing the relation between geography and history, CARL RITTER was as unquestionably pre-eminent. A chair was created for him in the Berlin University as early as 1820. He lived to occupy it for forty years, and to confer no less honour upon the city where he resided, and the inst.i.tution in which he taught, than upon his own name. And though but slight glimpses of his career have been caught by the people of Great Britain, yet such references to him as that in the Preface to Robinson"s _Biblical Researches_, and works of a similar character, will convince the readers of this country that whatever comes from his pen must have great and permanent value.
Professor RITTER"S main work relates to Asia, and includes therefore all of that territory which is known as the Holy Land. To this,--including the Lebanon district, Palestine proper, the country east of the Jordan, and the Sinaitic Peninsula,--RITTER devotes a s.p.a.ce equal to 6000 pages of the size employed in Messrs Clark"s publications. To translate a ma.s.s so voluminous as this would be evidently impracticable; and yet the immense erudition and power of graphic description of Professor RITTER, conjoined with the fact that he brought to the study of the Holy Land, not the unbelief of a rationalist, but living faith of a genuine Christian, has convinced the publishers that a portion of his great work would be a welcome offering to all students of Biblical Geography.
Messrs Clark accordingly now publish a translation executed by REV.
WILLIAM L. GAGE, a pupil and friend of the lamented RITTER, comprising that portion of the volumes relating to the Holy Land, which, in his judgment as editor, shall be the most acceptable addition to our biblical literature. The work is comprised in four octavo volumes. MR GAGE has been engaged for several years in the study and interpretation of Professor RITTER"S writings, and has enjoyed the active co-operation of many of the most eminent living geographers.
The main object which has been held in view in condensing and in selecting from the original, is to prepare the work for the use of biblical students. Everything ill.u.s.trating the Bible bas been considered of prime importance, and everything has been retained, needful to maintain the unity of the work. Notes are added, indicative of discoveries made since RITTER wrote, and the object has never been lost from sight--to make the work worthy of taking the same place in English that it has already done in German literature.