Or sunk at night in sad disastrous sleep
Beneath descending hills, the caravan
Is buried deep. In Cairo’s crowded streets
Th’ impatient Merchant wondering waits in vain,
And Mecca saddens at the long delay.————
Yet, notwithstanding all those horrible circumstances of terror and danger—trade, and the desire of gain, on the one hand, induce multitudes of people to run the hazard:
Impiger extremos currit Mercator ad Indos,
Per mare pauperiem fugiens, per saxa, per ignes.
Horace.
And on the other hand, enthusiasm and religious zeal send thousands to tempt their fate, and take a passage to Heaven through those horrid regions. Thus we see in what various ways delusion operates.—The Merchant might find a livelihood, and the Bigot his way to divine favour, just as well by staying within the confines of their own native home.