e head of all geographers ancient or modern, and finally he brought
together those relating to the geography of the Holy Land, publishing
them as part of his great work on the physical geography of the
earth. He was a Christian, and nothing could be more reverent than his
treatment of the whole subject; but his German honesty did not permit
him to conceal the truth, and he simply classed together all the stories
of the Dead Sea--old and new--no matter where found, whether in the
sacred books of Jews, Christians, or Mohammedans, whether in lives of
saints or accounts of travellers, as "myths" and "sagas."

From this decision there has never been among intelligent men any
appeal.

The recent adjustment of orthodox thought to the scientific view of the
Dead Sea legends presents some curious features. As typical we may
take the travels of two German theologians between 1860 and 1870--John
Kranzel, pastor in Munich, and Peter Schegg, lately professor in the
university of that city.

The archdiocese of Munich-Freising is one of those in which the attempt
to suppress modern scientific thought has been most steadily carried on.
Its archbishops have constantly shown themselves assiduous in securing
cardinals' hats by thwarting science and by stupefying education.
The twin towers of the old cathedral of Munich have seemed to throw a
killing shadow over intellectual development in that region. Naturally,
then, these two clerical travellers from that diocese did not commit
themselves to clearing away any of the Dead Sea myths; but it is
significant that neither of them follows the example of so many of their
clerical predecessors in defending the salt-pillar legend: they steadily
avoid it altogether.

The more recent history of the salt pillar, since Lynch, deserves
mention. It appears that the travellers immediately after him found
it shaped by the storms into a spire; that a year or two later it had
utterly disappeared; and about the year 1870 Prof. Palmer, on visiting
the place, found at some distance from the main salt bed, as he says,
"a tall, isolated needle of rock, which does really bear a curious
resemblance to an Arab woman with a child upon her shoulders."

And, finally, Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, the standard work of
reference for English-speaking scholars, makes its concession to the old
belief regarding Sodom and Gomorrah as slight as possible, and the myth
of Lot's wife entirely disappears.

IV. TH