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THE TESTIMONY 
 
 PROFANE ANTIQUITY 
 
 TO THE^^ejpSNtEjGflTjW^K MOSES 
 
 THE FALL OF MAN. 
 
 MATTHEW BRIDGES. 
 
 LONDON : 
 L. B. SEELEY AND SON, 1(>9, FLEET STREET 
 
 J. CHILCOTT, 6, HIGH STREET, BRISTOL. 
 
 MDCCCXXV 
 
x> 
 
 i7rzy 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 1HE following pages are a compilation from 
 manuscript observations, which the author has 
 been in the habit of making, for some years, on 
 the various works it has been his lot to meet 
 with. It never appeared to him a legitimate 
 expenditure of time, that so many writers in the 
 learned languages should be perused, merely for 
 the purpose of admiring or imitating their ele- 
 gance of style, their originality of thought, or the 
 glowing splendor of their genius. Both at home 
 and abroad, therefore, he has aimed at connecting 
 a nobler object with the study of the classics : 
 and availing himself of the useful labours of 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Gale, Owen, Godwyn, Vossius, Stillingfleet, 
 Bochart, and Bryant, he conceived tliat con- 
 siderable and important evidence might be 
 extracted from profane antiquity, in favour of 
 Divine Revelation. It is true, perhaps, that 
 no such testimony is needed, as the holy scrip- 
 tures contain abundant internal evidence of their 
 genuineness and authenticity. Yet the employ- 
 ment may not be deemed unuseful, which con- 
 tributes something, in however humble a manner, , 
 to the augmentation of the already innumerable 
 proofs, that the bible is the book of God, bearing 
 on every page the stamp of inspiration. 
 
 Should the present design prove an acceptable 
 one, another volume, on some future occasion, 
 may be added, respecting the history given by 
 Moses (not particularly of the deluge, as that has 
 been so ably exhausted, but) of the various cir- 
 cumstances subsequent to the diluvian period. 
 This will account for the following introductory 
 observations taking rather a wider range, than 
 merely the present subject would have rendered 
 necessary. 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 Since the completion of this treatise, Mr. 
 Faber s three quarto volumes on the Origin of 
 Pagan Idolatry, have been 'put into the hands of 
 the author ; who was agreeably surprised at find- 
 ing several of the sentiments in that erudite 
 work, corresponding with his own. Yet, con- 
 sidering all the circumstances, he does not con- 
 ceive the present undertaking to be superseded 
 by the superior merits of that noble, and laborious, 
 but unfortunately less accessible publication. 
 
 Some of the principles laid down in the course 
 of the ensuing dissertation, may possibly appear 
 too often repeated. The writer has doubtless 
 done much for which an apology is necessary ; 
 but he ventures to conclude his preface, with a 
 passage from that prefixed to the Hierozoicon 
 by its incomparably ingenious author, whom he 
 has sometimes attempted (magno intervallo) to 
 follow through the fields of learning ; stylum 
 quod attinet, nemo a nobis expectet mellitos ver- 
 borum globulos, et dicta quasi sesamo et papavere 
 sparsa ; 
 
 Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta docere 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Page 26, line from the top 4, for tower, read lower. 
 Page 154, ditto 1, Atafanta, readAtalanta 
 
THE TESTIMONY 
 
 OF 
 
 PROFANE ANTIQUITY 
 
 TO THE ACCOUNT GIVEN BY MOSES OF PARADISE 
 
 N the early a^fes jtt_itte^ a^rld, there hap- 
 pened certain events so momentous in their 
 nature, and so important in their results, as to 
 attract the attention of all who lived upon the 
 earth at that time; and in consequence, they 
 became objects of attention ever afterwards. 
 
 The traditionary history of each of these 
 wonderful occurrences descended from genera- 
 tion to generation, and however from distance 
 of time, and other causes, it might vary in 
 minor particulars, retained always its most 
 striking features. At length a divine revelation 
 was given, perfect of course in all its parts, and 
 bearing on every line the impress of its Al- 
 mighty Author. This signal favour of provi- 
 
dence was appropriated to one peculiar people; 
 and for the wisest reasons, other nations were 
 left destitute of so unspeakable a blessing. 
 Yet every tribe, in the meanwhile, preserved, 
 with the most religious reverence, its own ac- 
 counts of what had happened in past ages; 
 and these various traditions, as gathered from 
 the best writers of antiquity, being found to 
 possess | a striking agreement in their main 
 outline, with the inspired history, afford singu- 
 lar but important proof of its genuineness and 
 authenticity. 
 
 What a learned author has remarked respect- 
 ing the traditions of the deluge, and its subse- 
 quent circumstances, will apply to almost all 
 others. " It is observable, that the further we 
 go back the more vivid the traces of the truth 
 appear, especially in those countries which 
 were nearest the scene of action. But the 
 reverse of this would happen, if the whole 
 were originally a fable. The history would 
 not only be less widely diffused, but the more 
 remote our researches, the less light we should 
 obtain ; and however we might strain our sight, 
 the objects would by degrees grow faint, and 
 the scene terminate in clouds and darkness. 
 Besides this, there would not be that corres- 
 pondence and harmony in the traditions of 
 
different nations, which we see so plainly to 
 subsist. This could not be the result of chance, 
 but must necessarily have arisen from the same 
 history, being universally acknowledged."* 
 
 The report of any extraordinary fact must 
 have arisen from some quarter or other; and 
 when or wheresoever it was first published, the 
 relation of it would naturally excite curiosity in 
 the first hearers, and lead them diligently to 
 inquire into the truth of it. Now if they had 
 discovered that the report was false, or ground- 
 less, the history would have been immediately 
 discredited, and the narrator and his narrative 
 been no more heard of. But when traditions . 
 are found to prevail universally, we may feel 
 morally certain that the events to which they 
 refer did actually happen; and though these 
 oral and uninspired accounts may differ in sub- 
 ordinate details, more or less from the inspired 
 and true one, confessedly prior to them all, w r e 
 may assert of the relators of them what Scaliger 
 has said of the Greek historians: "that they 
 ought rather to be pitied for not having had the 
 advantage of more authentic antiquities and 
 records to set them exactly right, than to forfeit 
 their authority for such deviations from the 
 
 * Bryant's Analys. Ancient Mythol. vol. iii. p. 433. 
 
truth of the story, as render their confirmation 
 of the sacred history much stronger, because 
 much less to be suspected, than if they agreed 
 with it in every circumstance," — so that the 
 very inconsistencies of heathen history are thus 
 made to bear an unwilling witness to the truth, 
 and perfection of the account given by Moses.* 
 It may be proper to offer a few observations, 
 by way of introduction, on the causes of that 
 mixture and confusion of traditionary memo- 
 rials, which is found to exist throughout mytho- 
 logy. Sometimes traditions relating originally 
 to one personage, are attributed to another, or 
 even to two or three different characters; or, 
 
 * Catcott on the Deluge, pp. 76, 79. And to this may be 
 added, Bishop Huet's argument of common consent, after the 
 manner of Aristotle. " Quae plurium ergo demerentur (idem, 
 majorique omnium admittuntur consensu, clariora ea esse et 
 certioxa fatendum est Adeo ut quod de probabilibus dixit 
 Aristoteles, de veris merito dici possit, vera nempe esse, ra 
 
 ZoKOVVTCL 1ZCL01V 7] TOIQ 7r\«OTOl£, 7] TOIQ (TO(j)dlQt Kai TOVTOIQ, 7] 
 TOIQ TTcifflV, 7) TOIQ TtXeMJTOLQ, 7) TOIQ JidXlOTCl yVh)pi^LOLQ y KCU 
 
 evSotoiQ. Arist. Topic, lib. i. cap. 1. Nam cum ait, vera 
 esse ra Si clvtiov t^ovra tt\v tciotiv nempe apud homines 
 fidem habere vult Quae igitur apud plures homines habe- 
 bunt fidem, veriora esse necesse est. — Dem. Evang. Praef. 
 p. 5. To the same purpose, Joseph, lib. i. contra Apion. 
 Cicero Tusc. Quaest. lib. i. Omnium consensus naturae vox 
 est. And Seneca's Epist. 117; Apud nos veritatis argumentum 
 est aliquid omnibus videri. 
 
on the contrary, the histories of several persons, 
 famous in antiquity, are all crowded together, 
 and one hero or prophet is made the exclusive 
 actor of the whole.* 
 
 It should be remembered, in the first place, 
 that the distance of the period, in which some 
 of the earlier transactions recorded in sacred 
 Scripture, took place, is from us immense, and 
 therefore it would be absurd to look for entire 
 consistency in the uninspired accounts of those 
 transactions. There were probably no writings 
 anterior to the time of Moses, and even the 
 invention (if it may so be called) of letters 
 themselves, appears to have its origin and date 
 from Mount Sinai. The tables of the law were ^U 
 there written with the finger of God ; and 
 Eupolemus, together with other gentile writers, 
 confirms the fact, that Moses was the first 
 instrument of conveying to the world the inesti- 
 mable art of representing ideas by visible cha- 
 racters, and giving to language itself a durability 
 before unknown. 
 
 Until this memorable era, and indeed among 
 most nations for a long time after, hieroglyphics 
 were among the principal means of preserving 
 
 * The most ancient mythologists seem, in a measure, to >*~ 
 have been aware of this. — Phornut de Nat. Deo. apud 
 Gale, p. 37. et al. 
 
8 
 
 history ; these being moreover accompanied by 
 oral traditions then extant, and acknowledged 
 to be true by the universal assent of mankind. 
 Whenever these in any respect failed, recourse 
 was then alone had to the figurative emblems, 
 painted perhaps on the walls of a temple, to 
 which, having been committed many ages 
 before, there must necessarily have been after- 
 wards some difference of opinion as to their 
 exact signification. All this materially assisted 
 to confound and render obscure what was at 
 first simple, consistent, and easy to be under- 
 stood. Under such disadvantageous circum- 
 stances therefore, we have every reason to 
 be thankful for that body of traditionary evi- 
 dence which yet exists, and bears so powerful 
 a testimony to sacred truth. 
 
 Another source of confusion has been the 
 similarity observable between some of the dis- 
 tinguishing events of very early ages. Nor is 
 this similarity to be at all wondered at, for 
 under the providential economy of Jehovah, all 
 were but as so many types or figures of one 
 far greater event of overwhelming importance, 
 to which every nation under heaven, in propor- 
 tion to the light with which it had been favored, 
 was looking forward. Thus, between the 
 first formation of the universe, and the diluvian 
 
9 
 
 era,* the parallel is striking. In the beginning 
 God created out of nothing the chaos, a wild, 
 confused, and undigested mass of matter, with 
 a spirit,! breath, or wind moving upon the face 
 of the waters. Such also was the state of the 
 world during the deluge, as is evident from the 
 history of Moses, and the testimony of the 
 earth's whole surface from the lowest valley to 
 the summit of the highest mountain. Noah 
 and his wife may be said to answer to Adam 
 and Eve, as they were the first pairs of man- 
 kind in the antediluvian and postdiluvian 
 worlds. There is an analogy also between 
 their families, both as to the number and 
 natures of their children. Ham, Shem, and 
 Japheth may be compared with the Cain, Abel, 
 and Seth of our first parents. The household 
 of the former, awe-struck with the calamity of 
 the deluge, lived in comparative tranquillity 
 and happiness with their father, before the 
 
 * See this further illustrated by Catcott, in his interesting 
 Treatise on the Deluge. 
 
 + nn Gen. i. 2. Air in motion, a breeze, breath, wind; 
 sense, vii. The Holy Spirit, or Spirit of God, whose agency 
 in the spiritual world is in Scripture, represented to us by that 
 of the air in the natural. — Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. See John 
 iii. 8. And compare Gen. i. 2. with viii. 1. The word in 
 the Hebrew is the same in both places, nn. 
 
JO 
 
 migration of mankind; and in so far as this 
 was the case, their situation answered to the 
 peace and repose which man had once enjoyed 
 in paradise. A similar blessing was pronounced 
 both on Adam and Noah, and before the 
 descendants of the latter multiplied, the fierce- 
 ness of the wild animals emerging from the 
 ark, was doubtless restrained, or otherwise the 
 eight* who were preserved in the same vessel 
 with them, would have presently fallen a sacri- 
 fice to their natural rage or hunger. Here, 
 therefore, the parallel is observed again of the 
 harmony between man and the brute creation, 
 existing first in Eden, and afterwards in Arme- 
 nia, where Noah and his sons settled on the 
 retiring of the waters. f 
 
 * It is a very remarkable fact, that there was a town at the 
 foot of Mount Ararat, said to have been built by Noah, 
 called Thamanim or Tshaminim, which name signifies " The 
 Eight" The region round about had the same appellation, 
 as also the mountain on which the ark rested. Ebn Patri- 
 cius writes, " vocatur autem hodie terra Themanim." In 
 another place, he adds, "Cumque egressi essent, urbem 
 extruxerunt, quam Themanim appellarunt, juxta numerum 
 suum, quasi dicas, Nos octo sumus !" vol. i. pp. 40 and 43. 
 vide Calmet. Bochart Geog. Sacra. Phaleg. p. 20. 
 
 t This parallel of one ancient tradition being compared 
 with another, may be carried to a surprising extent. Thus, 
 between the history of Noah and Moses, as there is in some 
 
11 
 
 Another cause of perplexity has been from 
 the prevailing practice amongst every nation, of 
 adding to their own native histories, all or 
 many traditions of important events, which 
 regarded equally the whole human race. The 
 credit often of these, each separate colony is 
 found to have appropriated to its own more 
 immediate ancestors ; and hence it will be seen 
 that accounts of paradise, of Noah, and the 
 deluge, were limited by the heathen to this or 
 that country, without any regard to the actual 
 site of the event, or its history ; and very often, 
 as might be fairly expected, these accounts 
 :ame to be mixed up with foreign and extra- 
 neous circumstances, and were varied according 
 to the prejudices of each particular people. 
 Especially is this the case with regard to memo- 
 rials of paradise, the cherubim, and the creation 
 of the world ; which, as they could only come 
 to the knowledge of the postdiluvians through 
 the hands of Noah and his family, we generally 
 find all confounded with the deluge, and 
 described as happening nearly about the same 
 period. The case of the ancient gentile writers 
 
 points a great similarity, so the traditions relating to these 
 great characters are proportionably intermixed, and con- 
 fused. 
 
12 
 
 may be compared to that of the traveller look- 
 ing back upon a range of mountains, over which 
 he passed during the night : he sees them now, 
 but at a distance, with some rising behind and 
 over the tops of others, but all appearing in the 
 prospect as blended together. Now none, as 
 was observed before, could have instructed the 
 gentiles as to the forms of those mysterious 
 beings who guarded the way to the garden of 
 Eden and the Tree of Life, except those eight 
 persons who had seen what existed previous to 
 the flood, and gave those descriptions of them, 
 which were afterwards handed down from 
 generation to generation of their posterity. 
 Hence, very frequently, compound figures of 
 animals came to be worshipped by idolaters, as 
 types of the Baalim,* who were in fact none 
 
 * Particularly winged figures, for these certainly took their 
 rise from corrupted traditions of the Cherubim. A good 
 illustration of this will be found in the Egyptian representa- 
 tions of the god Cneph. " Cneph pingebatur ab Egyptiis 
 supra caput habens irrepov fiaoiktiov-irTepov alam significat. 
 Huet. Dem. Evang. p. 141. The Cherubim were undoubt- 
 edly winged, and they dwelt before Eden in a tent or taber- 
 nacle, called in the Hebrew, Shechinah; hence Jlrepov, 
 oKrjvri. Suidas. The very word fpD Cneph, and its plural, 
 will be found used for the wings of the Cherubim in Exodus 
 xxv. 20. xxxvii. 9. 1 Kings vi. 24. Wings are also attri- 
 buted in Scripture to the true God, in allusion, doubtless, to 
 
13 
 
 other than their own deified ancestors;* and 
 to them also the sacred gardens, called Para- 
 disi, were consecrated. Let us now enter 
 more fully upon the subject under considera- 
 tion. The scriptural account of the scene and 
 circumstances attendant upon the fall of man, 
 is as follows : — 
 
 The Lord God planted a garden eastward in 
 
 Eden; and there He put the man whom He had 
 
 formed. And out of the ground made the Lord 
 
 God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the 
 
 sight and good for food; the Tree of Life also in 
 
 the wings of the Cherubim. — Ruth ii. 12. Psalm xvii. 8. 
 lxi. 4. xci. 4. In all these four texts the Targum para- 
 phrases the expression by the " Shadow of the Shechinah." — 
 Parkhurst's Lex. Heb. vox. ppD. Deos omnes alatos fingebat 
 Taautus, teste Sanchoniathone apud Eusebium, — Prsep. Evan, 
 lib. i. cap. 10. 
 
 * That is, the Baalim composed the sacred Ogdoas of 
 Egypt, and many other countries ; and this Ogdoas was the 
 " family of eight," preserved in the ark, from the deluge. 
 They were often represented by other types indeed than 
 compound animals, though these seem to occur most fre- 
 quently. Thus the sun was the emblem of all the gods, and 
 of Bel or Baal among the number. — A flaming fire was also a 
 frequent typical representation, and when looked upon in the 
 light of a guard or protection, and preserved in a sacred 
 Tursis, appears to have derived its origin from the " flaming 
 sword, which turned every way, to keep the way of the Tree 
 of Life." Gen. iii.24. 
 
14 
 
 the midst of the garden, and the tree of know- 
 ledge of good and evil. And a river went out 
 of Eden to water the garden ; and from thence 
 it was parted and became into four heads. The 
 name of the first is Pison : that is it which 
 encompasseth the whole land of Havilah, where 
 there is gold; and the gold of that land is 
 good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. 
 And the name of the second river is Gihon ; the 
 same is it that encompasseth the whole land of 
 Ethiopia. And the name of the third river is 
 Hiddekel; that is it which goeth toward the 
 east of Assyria. And the fourth river is 
 Euphrates. And the Lord God took the man, 
 and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it 
 and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded 
 the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden 
 thou mayest freely eat ; but of the tree of the 
 knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat 
 of it ; for in the day that thou eatest thereof, 
 thou shalt surely die. And the Lord God said, 
 It is not good that the man should be alone, I 
 will make him an help-meet for him. And out 
 of the ground the Lord God formed every beast 
 of the field, and every fowl of the air ; and 
 brought them unto Adam to see what he would 
 call them ; and whatsoever Adam called every 
 living creature, that was the name thereof. And 
 
15 
 
 Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of 
 the air, and to every beast of the field; but for 
 Adam there was not found an help-meet for him. 
 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall 
 upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his 
 ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and 
 the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the 
 man made he a woman, and brought her unto the 
 man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my 
 bone, and flesh of my flesh ; she shall be called 
 woman, because she was taken out of man. There- 
 fore shall a man leave his father and his mother, 
 and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be 
 one flesh. And they were both naked, the man 
 and his wife, and were not ashamed. NO W 
 the serpent was more subtle than any beast of 
 the field which the Lord God had made; and 
 he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said 
 ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 
 And the woman said unto the serpent, we may 
 eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden : but 
 of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of 
 the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of 
 it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the 
 serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely 
 die ; for God doth know, that in the day ye eat 
 thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye 
 shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And 
 
16 
 
 when the woman saw that the tree ivas good for 
 food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a 
 tree to be desired to make one wise ; she took of 
 the fruit thereof and did eat, and gave also to 
 her husband, with her, and he did eat. And the 
 eyes of them both were opened, and they knew 
 that they were naked: and they sewed fig leaves 
 together, and made themselves aprons. And 
 they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in 
 the garden in the cool of the day ; and Adam and 
 his wife hid themselves from the presence of the 
 Lord God, amongst the trees* of the garden. 
 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said 
 unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I 
 heard thy voice in the garden ; and I was afraid, 
 because I was naked; and I hid myself And 
 he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? 
 Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I com- 
 manded thee, that thou shouldest not eat ? And 
 the man said, the woman whom thou gavest to be 
 with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 
 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What 
 is this that thou hast done? And the woman 
 said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 
 
 * So our version reads it, but the original Hebrew has it, 
 \xn yv "pra, which the Septuagint and other translations 
 seem to render rightly Ev /xeffcj fa £v\a r« icapadeioo, — Gen. 
 iii. 8. " In the midst of the tree of Paradise." 
 
And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because 
 thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all 
 cattle, and above every beast of the field: upon 
 thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat 
 all the days of thy life: And 1 ivill put enmity 
 between thee and the woman, and between thy 
 seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and 
 thou shall bruise his heel. Unto the woman He 
 said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy 
 conception ; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth 
 children ; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, 
 and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam 
 He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the 
 voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of 
 which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt 
 not eat of it ; cursed is the ground for thy sake ; 
 in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy 
 life ; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth 
 to thee ; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. 
 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, 
 till thou return unto the ground, for out of it 
 wast thou taken ; for dust thou art and unto 
 dust shalt thou return. And Adam called his 
 wife's name Eve ; because she was the mother of 
 all living. Unto Adam also and to his wife did 
 the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed 
 them. And the Lord God said, Behold the 
 man is become as one of us, to know good and 
 
18 
 
 evil: and now lest he put forth his hand and 
 take also of the Tree of Life, and eat, and live for 
 ever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth 
 from the garden of Eden, to till the ground 
 from whence he was taken. So he drove out the 
 man ; and He placed at the east of the ^garden 
 of Eden* Cherubim and a flaming sword, which 
 turned every way to keep the way of the tree of 
 lifer- 
 
 * Gen. iii. 24. " And the Lord God pw» caused to dwell, 
 or placed in a tabernacle, at the east of the garden of Eden, 
 the Cherubim.'* The word pttt', here expresses that there 
 was a tabernacle (resembling doubtless the Mosaic) in 
 which the Cherubim, and emblematic fire or glory, were 
 placed from the fall ; (see Wisdom ix. 8. Solomon address- 
 ing God in prayer, says : — "Thou hast commanded me to 
 build a temple upon thy holy mount, and an altar in the city 
 wherein Thou dwellest, a resemblance of the holy tabernacle 
 which Thou hast prepared from the beginninc^." Mip?/xa 
 2KHNHS AriAS r\v TrporjToifiaaag All' APXHS) and which 
 perhaps continued* in the believing line of Seth. "Whether 
 this same sacred tabernacle was preserved by Noah in the 
 ark, and remained in the family of JEber, till the descent of 
 the children of Israel into Egypt, and was brought up by them 
 from hence, is hard to determine. Certain it is from Exodus 
 xxxiii. 7 9. (compare Exodus xvi. 33, 34. 1 Samuel iv. 8.) 
 that the Israelites had a tabernacle or tent (see 2 Samuel 
 vii. 6.) sacred to Jehovah, before that erected by Moses ; 
 and it appears from Amos v. 26. and Acts vii. 42, that soon 
 after the Exodus, the idolaters and apostates had such like- 
 wise for their idols.— Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. vox pw. 
 
 
 
19 
 
 Now in this account of the inspired historian, 
 there appear four grand and leading features, 
 accompanied with some particulars of compa- 
 ratively minor import. We have displayed 
 before us the garden of Eden, with its trees in 
 the centre, too important to be ever forgotten ; 
 and the whole watered by a river, of which 
 many vestiges will be discovered in the memo- 
 rials of mythology: all this is only, however, 
 the scene of transactions the most awfully 
 interesting of any which have affected the race 
 of man. The shameful defection from their 
 covenant of obedience to God, is then laid 
 before us in the narrative of the fall of our 
 first parents, from their original righteousness, 
 whereby they and all their posterity were 
 involved in the guilt of sin ; while death and 
 sorrow entered the world, together with the 
 necessity of manual labour for the future sub- 
 sistence of the sons of Adam. But scarcely is 
 this dark shade of horror thrown over the pic- 
 ture, when the gloom is gilded by the delivery 
 of that great promise of a future Saviour, 
 " who should bruise the serpent's head ;" con- 
 nected with which, is all the following institu- 
 tion of the mysterious Cherubim, and the 
 sacrifices typical of an atonement to be there- 
 after made by the blood of the Redeemer 
 
20 
 
 Intimations are also given of man's perfect hap- 
 piness and state of intellectual knowledge prior 
 to the dreadful catastrophe of the fall, together 
 with the creation of woman, and the institution 
 of the marriage state. 
 
 Now if, upon surveying a considerable por- 
 tion of heathen mythology, it shall be found 
 that the most ancient religion of the pagans 
 consisted mainly of worship paid in groves, 
 gardens, or sacred enclosures, with one or more 
 symbols in the centre, identified with tradi- 
 tionary ideas of the Tree of Life, and the tree of 
 knowledge, which grew in the midst of Eden; 
 if there shall be discovered a general notion of 
 some blissful state, wherein mankind once 
 lived free from crime and sorrow, and where 
 labour was unnecessary to support existence ; 
 if, on proceeding further, we find an acknow- 
 ledgment that mankind fell from this happy 
 state, with here and there some obscure intima- 
 tions of the circumstances attending such fall, 
 and that the image of God, in which our pri- 
 mary ancestors were created, became gradually 
 defaced; if, wherever we turn, some striking 
 memorial meets us of a promised Deliverer, 
 looked forward to, who was to overthrow the 
 great serpent which had beeen the source of all 
 mischiefs happening to man; and if these 
 
21 
 
 several traditions shall be discovered not only 
 connected one with another, but with certain 
 symbolic figures manifestly analogous to the 
 cherubic exhibition on the east of Eden ; and if, 
 throughout the bright galaxy of sacrificial rites 
 and ceremonies, shining amid the darkness of 
 the night of heathenism as it were from one side 
 of heaven to the other, there shall be tacitly 
 recognized the necessity of an atonement for 
 man's sin by the voluntary blood-shedding of 
 some pure and propitiatory victim expected to 
 be offered : — I say, if all these singular vestiges 
 of paradise be found so analogous the one to 
 the other, as to appear but parts of one vast 
 whole, surely they will be allowed to exhibit 
 most remarkable collateral proof of the authen- 
 ticity of this part of the Mosaic history; and 
 that the narrative of the inspired penman of the 
 pentateuch is at once consistent, genuine, and 
 perfect. Let us examine how far this supposed 
 mythological testimony to the truth of what 
 Moses has written, is borne out by actual matter 
 of fact. 
 
 It was in paradise that man first enjoyed 
 communion with his Maker; and most probably 
 it was the morning of the first sabbath which 
 dawned upon Adam newly created, and awa- 
 kening in the midst of Eden, to all the bliss of 
 
22 
 
 iris as yet sinless existence. This circumstance, 
 it may be conjectured, was the reason why the 
 sacred sabbatic number became frequently con- 
 nected with grove and garden worship, both 
 amongst the believers in the true God, and the 
 heathen in their paradisaical memorials, as will 
 be seen in the course of the present investiga- 
 tion. After the fall of man and his expulsion 
 from paradise, Still dear to him, and all his 
 posterity, was the recollection of Eden. A 
 description of it was carried down the stream 
 of time, by traditions descending from one 
 generation to another; and hence we find that 
 before temples were ever erected, a sacred 
 garden, grove, or enclosure was the scene of 
 worship.* It was so common, moreover, that 
 the custom seems to have prevailed throughout 
 the world. The Canaanites and Phoenicians 
 were especially addicted to the mode of idol- 
 atry arising out of these traditions ; and from 
 the Scriptures we learn how soon the children 
 of Israel apostatized into the abominations of 
 the natives of the country they conquered. It 
 
 * See a tine passage in Seneca's forty-first epistle, remark- 
 ably illustrative of this" ; and to the same effect, Tacit. Germ, 
 cap. ix. Plin. Nat Hist. xii. cap. i. Apuleius i. Florid. 
 Tacit. Ann. xiv. Hieron. ad Jerem. cap. vii.— xxxii. 
 Lucan. Phar. iii. 398. 
 
23 
 
 is not impossible, but that at first they might in 
 some measure have been induced to this from 
 motives comparatively harmless, perceiving how 
 exactly the Canaanitish traditions concerning 
 paradise, coincided with, and were proofs of 
 the truth and consistency of their own revela- 
 tion. However, the abuse soon became flagrant; 
 — they quickly forgot the Lord their God, who 
 had planted with his own hand the garden of 
 Eden, and thus suffered idolatrous worship to 
 usurp his throne in their affections. Therefore 
 they are spoken of, in the prophet^ as a people 
 continually provoking God to anger, by "sacri- 
 " ficing in gardens ;" and it is declared of them, 
 that "they should be ashamed of the oaks 
 " which they had desired, and confounded for 
 " the gardens they had chosen." It is evident 
 that the origin of these gardens was some 
 paradisaical tradition; for we find from the 
 same prophet, that "they had one tree in the 
 " midst" which must have been planted there, as 
 an idolatrous symbol of one or both of those 
 famous trees, which grew in the midst of the 
 garden of Eden.* 
 
 Another feature connected with these sacred 
 enclosures, was an imitation of the cherubic 
 
 * Isaiah i. 29. lxv. 3. lxvi. 17. See also Judges iii. 7. 
 
24 
 
 tabernacle on the east of Eden. This, I appre- 
 hend, was the origin of temples,* erected at 
 first for the defence and security of the grove 
 or garden, as the tent of the Cherubim, with 
 the flaming sword, had been once pitched " to 
 " keep the way of the Tree of Life ;" (pvXcKraeiv rrjv 
 o$ov as the Septuagint has it, sufficiently demon- 
 strating the precise meaning of »»«£, which it is 
 plain from the whole context, here signifies " a 
 " watch or guard." These imitations of the 
 cherubic tabernacle appear to have been origi- 
 nally towers, answering the end at first of pro- 
 tection, and afterwards of worship, or very 
 
 * But the shrine of the temple denominated by the priests 
 Nae>£, had its origin from Nue, Noac, or Noah, and the vessel, 
 in which he was preserved. Hence it was, that these shrines 
 were often found in the form of an ark, or ship ; and we still 
 call the centre of our churches the nave, from navis. In 
 later ages, when from the distance of time, many circum- 
 stances relative to a history prior to the deluge were forgot- 
 ten, the temples themselves seem sometimes to have been 
 built after the fashion of the ark ; as that of Sesostris was at 
 Thebes, in Egypt, reared by him in honour of Osiris, which 
 was a title bestowed by the heathen on Noah; Nut kcu 
 OffipiQ KaXeirai. Tzetzes Chiliad. 10 Hist. 335. See the 
 account of this temple in Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. p. 52. The 
 historian calls it a ship. The reader will please ever to bear 
 in mind the constant confusion of diluvian with paradisaic 
 traditions, which exists throughout mythology, — See also 
 Pausanias, lib. vii. p. 534. 
 
25 
 
 frequently uniting both these purposes together. 
 From a tradition of the typical fire, "which 
 " turned every way to keep the way of the Tree 
 " of Life," these sacred edifices came to be consi- 
 dered as fire towers, and hence they had the 
 titles of Tar, Tor, Turris, Tursis, Tauron, and 
 Triton; all which are derivatives from the 
 Chaldee "nn Tur, signifying a tower or place of 
 defence, as also a temple, wherein the sacred 
 fire was always kept burning, compounded with 
 the radicals Is and On, the former similar to 
 the Hebrew »«, and the latter a well-known 
 title denoting fire, or the sun. Tursis is evi- 
 dently a contraction of Tur-lsis, " the tower or 
 " temple of the holy flame ;" for Is, when com- 
 pounded with itself and rendered Isis, means 
 " lightning, or any thing superlatively bright."* 
 Now it is remarkable, that in the ancient poets 
 and mythologists, whenever a Tursis is alluded 
 to, the builders or inhabiters of it are described 
 as having been some of those curious charac- 
 ters, which were either winged, or said to have 
 been compounded of different animals, and 
 which certainly were obscure representations 
 of the Cherubim. Thus in the Tursis men- 
 
 * Bryant, vol. i. p. 32. 
 
26 
 
 tioned by Lycophron, Tvpcnc toa\np»* a siren 
 dwelt, who was a compound figure, of which 
 the upper part was a human ibrm, and the 
 tower winged. Again, in the same author, 
 Cassandra in her apostrophe to Hector, assures 
 him that he shall dwell, N^ote Ma/capwv in the 
 islands of the blessed, which were at Thebes, 
 the Tvpoiv KaXw^a, said to have been built by 
 Zethes and Amphion, or by Zethes and Calais, 
 and who these were, Hyginus')* informs us; "Hi 
 "capita pedesque pennatos habuisse feruntur, 
 " crinesque cceruleos qui pervio aere usi sunt." 
 There is a Tursis spoken of by Pindar also, in 
 or near a Na<rov Mca-apwv,J and the connection of 
 this, and others of the same nature, with para- 
 disaic traditions, will be more fully shewn here- 
 after. With regard to the Tursis at Thebes, 
 we may moreover remark, that it was connected 
 with the Sphinx, another compound figure, and 
 a vestige of the Cherubim. However, the 
 Tursis, in after ages, from being in its origin 
 merely a defence or protection of the sacred 
 grove or garden, under the circumstances above 
 described, grew at length to be the most impor- 
 
 * Lye. Cassand. ver. 717, 1209, 1273. 
 + Hyg. Fab. xiv. and xix. pp. 43—55. 
 X Olymp. ii. 128. 
 
27 
 
 taut part of the whole enclosure ; and at last 
 there came to be scarcely any portion at all of 
 the consecrated paradise, but what was em- 
 braced within the actual walls of the temple ; 
 the inner court of which presented still the 
 paradisaical tradition of "one tree in the 
 "midst," which overshadowed what was at once 
 the altar of atonement, and the asylum of those 
 who fled thither for protection,* from either 
 vengeance or justice. Sometimes these places 
 were called the "Temples of Eden," as was 
 that mentioned in the Prophet Amos;f and 
 other instances might likewise be adduced. 
 StraboJ mentions the fact that in his day " all 
 " sacred places, even where no trees were to be 
 "seen, were still called groves;" and we even 
 find that now and then, an image or representa- 
 tion of the grove or garden was consecrated 
 and preserved in the temple,^ being probably a 
 cast or impression in metal, like the coin of 
 Antoninus Pius yet extant, which bears a 
 
 * Virg. iEneid. ii. 513. 
 
 f Amos i. 5. 
 
 X Strabo akorj icaXovai ra upa iravTa Geogr. ix. See, 
 moreover, the learned notes, Fred. Sylburgh. in Dionys. Hali» 
 earn, Antiq. Rom. pp. 62 and 525; aud the various authorities 
 there cited. 
 
 § 2 Kings xxiii. 0. 
 
28 
 
 remarkable attestation to the fact, that heathen 
 traditions were current in that Emperor's reign, 
 of the history of the fall of man ; for Hercules 
 is represented on the reverse, as plucking apples 
 from a tree, around the trunk of which, a ser- 
 pent is enfolded. 
 
 Amongst other precepts, whereby the Jews 
 were to be kept from the imitation of pagan 
 ceremonies, this was one ; " Thou shalt not 
 " plant thee a grove of any trees near unto the 
 " altar of the Lord thy God ;" and yet it is cer- 
 tain, that the early patriarchs worshipped the 
 true God in places of this nature, and which 
 had a manifest allusion to the circumstances 
 attendant on the garden of Eden. Thus 
 Abraham "planted a grove in Beershebah,* and 
 
 * Gen. xxi. 33. He also dwelt under the Oak of Mamre, 
 and built an altar there. Gen. xiii. 18. Trap rr\v dpvv tt\v 
 Mapfipri. Ixx. The heathen imitated this traditionary cus- 
 tom; and there was scarcely a deity in mythology but had a 
 tree peculiarly sacred to him. Various passages may be 
 cited to prove this. Even the Peruvians paid very remark- 
 able honours to a tree. See Acosta, book v. cap. 2. Xerxes, 
 on finding a very beautiful plane-tree at Callatebus, near the 
 river Maeander, *' adorned it with golden chains, and 
 " assigned the charge of it to one of the immortal band.'' 
 Herod. Polym. cap. 31. iElian. lib. ii. cap. 14. Virg. Eclog. 
 vii. Plin. Nat. Hist. xvi. 44. Justin Martyr, in enumerating 
 the several species of idolatry, mentions a\\wy AENAPA 
 
29 
 
 " called there on the name of the Lord, the ever- 
 " lasting God." The well or spring of water, 
 which was probably included within the pre- 
 cincts of the sacred plantation, was called the 
 " well of the oath ;" and connected with it, we 
 find the sabbatic number, for the patriarch, in 
 there making his covenant with Abimelech, 
 "set seven ewe lambs of the flock by them- 
 " selves, and said, these seven ewe lambs shalt 
 u thou take of my hand, that they may be a wit- 
 " ness unto me that I have digged this well : — 
 " wherefore he called that place Beershebah, 
 " because there they sware both of them : — thus 
 " they made a covenant at Beershebah,"* The 
 reason why the peculiar number seven is fre- 
 quently discovered in connection with these 
 paradisaical memorials has been already hinted 
 at : it may here, however, just be observed, 
 that it was the ancient practice to enter into 
 solemn covenants under some sacred tree, 
 which was sometimes situated upon a rock, or 
 other high-place, at the foot of which flowed 
 some sacred spring ; for this is generally atten 
 
 dant upon all paradisi, intended possibly to 
 represent that river of Eden which parted into 
 
 / 
 
 aeftofievwvt in his second apology for the Christians, p. 68. 
 Paris Ed. 1636. 
 * Gen. xxi. 28-32. 
 
30 
 
 four heads, and watered the blissful garden. 
 It may further be remarked, that the covenant 
 of marriage, more especially, was entered into 
 under the hallowed tree, which stood " in the 
 " midst" of the grove, overshadowing the high- 
 places of heathen superstition ; thus in Homer, 
 Hector, when debating with himself, whether 
 he should meet Achilles, is made to say, 
 
 Ou /xev ttw£ vvv eanv aTro^APYOS, ov% airo HETPII2 
 Tw oapi^e^tevai, cite irapdevog rjideogre 
 Hapdevog t\lQeoq r oapifcrov a\XrjXoi<nv* 
 
 Which may be paraphrased thus: — "This meet- 
 " ing with Achilles is a very different one from 
 " that of a young man and woman, when they 
 " converse together under the sacred oak, or on 
 " the high-place ;"— and this custom of entering 
 into their marriage vows under these circum- 
 stances, and in this manner, was undoubtedly 
 derived from the original institution of that 
 sacred state in paradise, of which so many tra- 
 ditions had reached them. Beershebah, we 
 find, afterwards, was the scene of another 
 covenant between Isaacf and the King of 
 Gerah, perhaps the son of the former Abime- 
 lech. And long after this, the patriarch Jacob, 
 
 * Iliad xxii. 127. t Gen. xxyi. 3Q. 
 
31 
 
 before he ventured to take his journey down 
 into Egypt, came to this very " Beershebah, 
 " and offered sacrifices to the God of his father 
 "Isaac," seeking an oracular answer for the 
 direction of his future conduct, which he was 
 graciously permitted to receive " in visions of 
 the night."* All these circumstances are impor- 
 tant, for we shall perceive in the course of the 
 present investigation, that they were invariably 
 attendant upon the consultation of many hea- 
 then oracles, whose origin may be traced up to 
 traditions of paradise. 
 
 It may be worth while to inquire why the 
 oak was so often fixed upon as the sacred tree 
 either in groves, or gardens, or high-places, 
 both by believers and others. In the Hebrew 
 the name of this tree is generally, with some 
 slight variations, nf?«, which appears to have 
 been given it from " its remarkably interposing 
 " and protecting both men and animals from 
 " storms and tempests." The Septuagint transla- 
 tors have once rendered it descriptively by Acvfya 
 nvaKia'CovTOQy " the overshadowing tree;" and it is 
 remarkable, that from a root very nearly the 
 same in the sacred language, is derived the 
 word for " the denouncing of a curse," as also, 
 
 * Gen. xlvi. 2. 
 
32 
 
 the name of the ever-blessed Trinity, " the Co- 
 " venantors." Some traditions of all this were 
 evidently extant in Canaan before the arrival 
 of the Father of the Faithful in that country. 
 For Abram* passed through the land, unto the 
 place of Sichem, mi» pVa hv t-m rrjv apyn n^'v^Xi^ 
 "unto the lofty oak," or the "high-place of the 
 " oak," as it might be rendered. This extraordi- 
 nary oak was doubtless consecrated, and stood 
 in the midst of one of the sacred gardens or 
 paradisi of Canaan, for " the Canaanite was 
 " then in the land." We hear of it again in one 
 of the following chapters of Genesis, where we 
 are told that, after the treacherous overthrow 
 of Hamor's city and family by Levi and 
 Simeon, Jacob their father took the strange 
 gods, which had begun to infect his own family, 
 " and hid them under the oak by Shechem."| 
 In the prophetic blessing pronounced upon his 
 children just before his death, he seems to have 
 noticed that horrid transaction of his two sons, 
 and to have alluded particularly to one circum- 
 stance attending it, declaring that " in their 
 " anger they slew a man, and in their self-will 
 " they "\wt np* digged down a wall," as our 
 
 * Gen. xii.G. t Gen. xxxv. 4. 
 
 X SurorSar, which signifies notonly " a wall," butgenerally a 
 rock or promontory. This radical, like Tar, Tur, and Tarit, is 
 
33 
 
 version renders the passage, but the Septuagint, 
 more correctly, tvevpoKoirrioav taypon. This Tau- 
 ron was one of the sacred towers, sometimes 
 called Tursis, whose origin must be sought for 
 in paradisaic traditions. In after ages, when 
 Shechem had been rebuilt, and their idolatry 
 restored, we read that the men of Shechem 
 made Abimelech, the spurious son of Gideon, 
 king over them, and entered, of course, into a 
 covenant with him concerning the kingdom,* 
 xh* iv " under the oak in Shechem." Our trans- 
 lators have rendered it " a pillar," which was 
 indeed sometimes made use of as a substitute 
 for the tree in the centre of these sacred enclo- 
 sures ; but the word in the Hebrew is the same 
 as is elsewhere translated " an oak, 3 ' and the 
 
 often compounded with On ; and hence the title Sar-On was 
 conferred upon any high-place, where there was a grove of 
 ancient oaks, as being sacred to the Deity so called. Some- 
 times the particle tz>N As, was added, denoting fire. Est 
 et regio Saronas, sive Spvfiog. Reland. Palest, p. 188. 
 These rocks and high-places were not only called Saronides, 
 from the consecrated groves of oaks which grew upon them ; 
 but what is yet more remarkable, the Druids were so styled, 
 by whom these particular trees were held so sacred. Bryant's 
 Anal. vol. i. pp. 90—94. 
 
 * Judges ix. 6. Perhaps this was the same idolatrous 
 grove which still remained, even in the days of Elisha. 
 2 Kings xiii. 6. 
 
34 
 
 Septuagint have also rightly expressed it irpoc 
 rri BaXavia. — Connected with this consecrated tree, 
 we hear of the temple or tower of the god Baal- 
 Berith. This tower was of the same nature as 
 the Tauron, overthrown by the sons of Israel, and 
 alluded to by their father in his prophecy. It was 
 sacred to Baal-Berith. Now Baal here certainly 
 means the hallowed fire, whose emblem was a 
 compound idol, representing the form of a bull 
 in union with a man. Thus we recognize the 
 vestiges of that cherubic guard, with the fiery 
 sword, which protected the garden of Eden ; 
 and, from the figure of the bull, the appellation 
 of Tauron, from lavpog Tauros, might in part 
 have risen ; or rather more probably the name 
 of the animal itself was derived from its conse- 
 cration in the fire tower, called Tavpov Tauron, 
 from the Chaldee vm Tur, or Taur, and the 
 radical On, as has been before observed. 
 The latter title of the Shechemitish deity was 
 Berith, an appellation literally signifying " a 
 purifier, or a purification sacrifice," and impli- 
 edly denoting, " a covenant," with the sacrificial 
 rite usual on such an occasion, which was both 
 among believers and heathens, either cutting the 
 victim in twain, or in pieces ; thereby demon- 
 strating that, at these solemn leagues, they had 
 a view to that one great Sacrifice expected to 
 
35 
 
 be offered up for the sins of men, and, that 
 altogether it was an emblematical expression of 
 the parties staking their hopes of purification 
 by that great Sacrifice, on their performing 
 their respective conditions of the covenant, 
 on which the nm Beritli was offered. The 
 Shechemites, as well as other heathens, proba- 
 bly must have derived their notions of all this, 
 from traditions of that blessed covenant of 
 grace first offered to mankind in paradise, when 
 the great Berith, or Purifier, was promised, as 
 the seed of the woman who was to bruise the 
 serpent's head ; and therefore it was, that here 
 they connected the fire-tower Tavpov, of the god 
 Baal-Berith, with the traditionary traces yet 
 extant among them of the garden of Eden. 
 Before we leave Shechem, one may remark the 
 exquisite propriety of Jotham in his parable 
 delivered on Mount Gerizim;* he, as well as 
 those who heard him, had before their eyes a 
 view of the traditionary representation of para- 
 dise in the sacred grove of Shechem, with one 
 tree in the midst, as it were, like the king of the 
 garden. All, therefore, must have powerfully 
 understood the force of his address, and the 
 correctness of so beautiful an allegory. 
 
 * Judges ix. 7 — 15. 
 D 
 
36 
 
 Beside other places in the land of Canaan 
 consecrated to the celebration of paradisaic 
 memorials, there were some which had the 
 appellation of Cades, or Kadesh, which in fact 
 is only Hades, written or pronounced with a 
 guttural, after the oriental manner. They were 
 also frequent in many other parts of the world, 
 as will be shewn hereafter. They will always 
 be found to exhibit more or less of the traces of 
 those traditions, from which their original is to 
 be looked for. Some sacred symbol or sym- 
 bols, consisting of one or more peculiar tree or 
 trees, or one or two remarkable fountains, will 
 be generally discovered in the centre ; or per- 
 haps all these, and yet more singular vestiges 
 of Eden, will be seen connected together, while 
 the garden or grove itself is considered often as 
 the future state of existence for the soul of man, 
 into which he enters upon his dissolution, by 
 means of sacrifice and lustration. Indeed, the 
 whole Hades, or invisible world of the ancients, 
 appears made up of scenical representations of 
 those ideas which tradition afforded them of the 
 happy and blissful garden, from which the first 
 pair of mankind were expelled for their trans- 
 gression, after it had been the scene of their 
 shameful fall, through the wiles of the serpent ; 
 and after it had witnessed the delivery of the 
 
37 
 
 promise that " the seed of the woman should 
 " bruise the serpent's head." This will appear 
 more especially, when we come to consider the 
 view of Hades, which the poets and philoso- 
 phers have given us, and particularly Homer, 
 Virgil, and Plato. For the present, it may be 
 sufficient to remark, that here, as well as else- 
 where, the reader will perceive one tree in the 
 midst, with some vestiges of a river or lake 
 parting into four heads, and not a few traces of 
 the Cherubim who guarded Eden, among which 
 may be mentioned, as an example, the well 
 known three-headed dog Cerberus, who kept 
 the door of death and hell, and who was to be 
 appeased alone by the rites and offerings here- 
 after to be considered. 
 
 There seems to have been more than one 
 Cades, even in Palestine.* One is mentioned 
 
 * Gen, xiv. 7. Numbers xx. 1, 14, 16. Psalm xxix. 8. 
 Two of these, at all events, were different places, and, like 
 many others, were probably the sacred enclosures before 
 alluded to, containing many vestiges of paradisaic tradition. 
 The Targum of Onkelos paraphrases the title Kades, in 
 Genesis and Numbers, and the Targum of Ben Uzziel in 
 the Psalms, by the word op"i Rekem, which signifies " bro- 
 " cade or embroidery, variegated with a number of figures.'' 
 Possibly this might allude to the figures of compounded and 
 wiuged animals, (traces of the Cherubim,) with which the 
 idolaters frequently surrounded their consecrated gardens or 
 
38 
 
 ia the fourteenth chapter of Genesis, and ren- 
 dered by the Septuagint, "n?v Tr^yjjv ryg tcpiffsiog avrr) 
 
 " e(ttl kaahs the fountain of judgment, this is 
 " Kades." The fountain Styx in the Hades or 
 infernal regions (as they were often considered) 
 of the poets, was also looked upon as " the 
 " fountain of judgment;" but more of the actual 
 nature of the Cades of Canaan will be disco- 
 vered in the history of another sacred enclosure 
 of the same kind and name, which has been 
 preserved by Philostratus.* It was doubtless 
 derived from that which Chedorlaomor de- 
 stroyed, or at least one very similar to it, being 
 founded in the most early ages subsequent to 
 the deluge, and by a Phcenician colony. The 
 place I allude to now is Gades, as the Romans 
 expressed it; or dikp Kades, as the Orientals 
 and Phcenician s wrote it; although the latter 
 sometimes termed it Gadir, which was likewise 
 the name which the Greeks gave it ; or Cadiz, 
 manifestly Cades, as it is at present called. 
 There was here in ancient times a most delight- 
 
 paradisi: — for sometimes, I apprehend, a pavilion was made 
 to supply the place of the Tursis or fire-tower — vid. Versio. 
 Tremell. et Francis. Jun. et Annot. ad loc. Gen xiv. 7. The 
 breast-plate of Cybele was ornamented with these winged 
 figures, called tvttoi " emblems." Phorn. de Nat. Deo. p. 9. 
 * Philost. de Vit. Apol. lib. v. cap. 4. p. 190. 
 
39 
 
 ful garden consecrated by solemn rites and 
 ceremonies to idolatrous worship. In the midst 
 of it were two very remarkable trees, according 
 to Philostratus, though Pausanias* only men- 
 tions one, the like to which were no where else 
 to be found. They grew out of the tomb of 
 Geryon, a tricorporate monster, which Hercules 
 was there said to have overcome and slain. 
 These trees were of a mixed nature, and it was 
 affirmed of them that they distilled drops of 
 blood, in the same manner as the poplars on 
 the banks of Eridanusf (or Ur- Adonis, the river 
 of Eden or Adonis) distilled gold and amber. 
 Hard by this sacred enclosure was a lake, 
 with an island in its centre, and a temple on 
 it of precisely the same dimensions, so that it 
 appeared to float ; in which the same victorious 
 Hercules, called Swn/p, or the Saviour,:): was 
 worshipped. The long series of his labours 
 was also here represented ; but it is worthy of 
 
 * Pausanias in Atticis, cap. 35. He calls it ktvlpov 
 Trapex^Qat c>ia0op«c fxop<paQ. Plin. Hist. Nat. lib. iv. cap. 36. 
 
 f Philost. ut sup. cap. 5. 
 
 I He was so called in common with other deities, as can 
 be proved from several ancient medals; vide Spanhem. Diss. 
 7, de P. and V. numism. p. 417. Bacchus, Apollo, Escu- 
 lapius, and others were all termed Swr^p. Philost. pp. 340 
 and 342. Annot. in Olear. Ed. 
 
40 
 
 remark, that no images were suffered to be 
 consecrated, but merely three brazen altars, of 
 which the Egyptians were said to have furnished 
 two, and the Thebani, or Arkites, one. The 
 temple itself was declared to be on the very 
 bounds of the habitable world, and, according 
 to Livy,* even " extra orbem terrarum." The 
 wood of which it was built, was esteemed 
 immortal and incorruptible, f In the middle of 
 it were two remarkable fountains, one of which 
 ebbed and flowed with the tide, but the other 
 just the reverse; and between these stood a 
 golden olive tree, which bore emeralds for its 
 fruit. This was called the Olive of Pygmalion, 
 though placed in the temple of Hercules. Now 
 the olive was the insigne of Minerva, the god- 
 dess of wisdom ; and having always been 
 considered as the emblem of knowledge, ap- 
 pears in the instance before us to have tradi- 
 tionally represented the tree of knowledge in 
 the midst of Eden, whose fruit was " pleasant 
 
 * Hist. lib. xxviii. Gades, according to Strabo, is the 
 Ecr-Xarr} iSpvfiEvr} ri/c y>7£. Solinus calls it, extremus noti 
 orbis terminus. All these ideas arose from Gades being 
 considered like Hades, a memorial of the paradise passed, 
 and typical of that invisible world on which the soul was 
 conceived to enter upon the dissolution of the body. 
 
 + Silius Ital. lib. iii. Philost. ut supra. Photius auth.241. 
 
I'm 
 
 
 41 
 
 to the eyes," and of which circumstance the 
 emeralds seem to exhibit the tradition which 
 had been handed down from generation to 
 generation after the fall. It was, moreover, 
 called the Olive of Pygmalion ; of whom there 
 is an obscure story related, which is manifestly 
 derived from traditions of the creation of woman 
 and the institution of marriage.* From the 
 sacred enclosure we are describing, all women 
 were, however, driven away, as their sex (sin- 
 gular to relate) was looked upon to have been 
 the primary cause of mischief and calamity, j- 
 And lastly, the whole temple was guarded by 
 lions and a flaming fire, which turned every 
 way to forbid the approach of the profane and 
 unholy. 
 
 Within the sacred enclosure, moreover, was 
 an altar dedicated to Old Age, and those who 
 attended it are mentioned as the only persons 
 who " sing paeans in honour of Death." Hard 
 by this, there were three others,^ dedicated to 
 
 * Ovid. Metam. x. 243. 
 
 f Macrob. lib. i. Saturn, cap. 8. Plut. Rom. Quaest. 60. 
 Bochart. Canaan, lib. i. cap. 34. p. 677. 
 
 X Tov 9ANAT0N fiovoi avSpiOTrwv Traiavi£ovrai. Bujxoi 
 Be £K£i Kat TTtviaq teat Te\vr)Q t Kat HpcuA.£8£ AiyvrrTiov. Philos. 
 de Vit. Apoll. lib. v. 4. p. 190. John Cleric. Bib. Select, 
 vol. li. p. 109. 
 
42 
 
 Poverty, Manual Labour, and Hercules. The 
 three first of those four altars evidently inti- 
 mate, that traditions existed among them of the 
 original sentence pronounced upon the breach 
 of the covenant of works, in paradise, by our 
 first parents ; " of every tree of the garden thou 
 " may est freely eat ; but of the tree of the 
 " knowledge of good and evil, which is in the 
 " midst of the garden, thou shalt not eat of it; 
 " for in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou 
 " shalt surely die." — " By one man," however, 
 " sin entered the world, and death by sin," 
 together with the sorrows of old age, poverty, 
 and manual labour following in their train. 
 The altar to Hercules the Saviour, as he is 
 wonderfully called, demonstrates that expec- 
 tation of the great Deliverer, who was to over- 
 throw the serpent, (mythologically called Ger- 
 yon, Python, Typhon, and other names,) and 
 of whose advent and victory, we shall presently 
 find so many traditions to have existed. This 
 sacred enclosure, as well as the temple near it, 
 was guarded by hydras, lions, and other com- 
 pound animals, representing, however obscurely, 
 vestiges of the cherubic exhibition on the east 
 of Eden. The flaming fire has already been 
 also noticed, and from this last circumstance 
 
43 
 
 the name Gadir,* according to the heathen 
 accounts, was derived ; and we discover almost 
 invariably that all these traditionary representa- 
 tions of paradise have some reference to a 
 defence of the same kind. 
 
 Not far from Gades there was another sacred 
 enclosure of a similar nature, called by the 
 Phoenicians ti>»imn Tursis, which in after times 
 became corrupted into Tartessus.f It was an 
 
 * Macrob. Saturnal. lib. i. cap. 20. See also Avienus, 
 Pliny, Solinus, Isidorus, and Hesychius, cited by Bochart. 
 Canaan, p. 673. This learned man thinks, however, that 
 though the term Gadir signifies "locum undique septum ;" 
 yet that the defence alluded to was that of the ocean, looking 
 only to the sacred island mentioned in the description. 
 With great deference to this opinion, the elements of which 
 the term is composed, and the same name being often con- 
 ferred upon places inland, seem to declare the contrary ; and 
 putting all the circumstances together, the protection of the 
 sacred fire or light, and the host of the Cherubim, appear to 
 be pointed at in this remarkable title. Consult Parkhurst. 
 Heb. Lex. under the words u, **, and niK. The name 
 Gadir occurs several times in Scripture. Joshua xii. 13. 
 and three in chap. xv. 2 Chron. xviii. 18. LXX. Gen. xxxv. 
 16. Sulpic. Sever, lib. i. cap. 16. and the notes on the place 
 in the var. edit. 
 
 + Pomp. Mela, lib. iii. cap. 1. Strabo, lib. iii. pp. 140 — 
 148. Pausanias in JEliacis. Ptolem. Avien. Bochart, p. 669. 
 Stephan. ex mss. 
 
44 
 
 island in the middle of a lake called Avernus,* 
 formed by the widening of the river JBoetis. 
 At no great distance from this last was another 
 island, also bearing the same name, although 
 also called Erythia, a corruption of Hfc *m Ur- 
 Thur, or the tower of light or fire. The fables 
 of Geryon, and other traditionary features of 
 paradise, were likewise connected with it; while 
 not far off was an ancient high-place, conse- 
 crated to the rites of the serpent, called Colo- 
 bona ; and all these paradisaical enclosures 
 had the same appellations of Tursis, Gadir, and 
 Kades indifferently conferred upon them.f We 
 have also seen that one of them was in the 
 centre of a lake Avernus, which decidedly con- 
 nects it with the Hades or future world of 
 antiquity; and which, I will now shew, was 
 mainly founded upon memorials of the garden 
 of Eden, although interspersed with diluvian 
 and other traditions. 
 
 * H £e Taprrjffog IfirjpiKr) woXig irepi rrjv Aopvov Xifivrjy 
 Schol. Aristop. in Ran. 
 
 f Tartessum Hispaniae civitatem quam nunc Tyrii mutato 
 nomine Gaddir liabeut. Sallust in Fragrn. et Avienus in oris 
 maritimis. 
 
 Hie Gaddir urbs est dicta Tartessus prius. 
 
 Boch. 673. 
 
45 
 
 It was my custom, during a residence of 
 some weeks at Naples, to pass several hours of 
 almost every day, in exploring the neighbour 
 hood of Puteoli and Baiav I was induced to 
 do this, from their remarkable scenery having 
 been once the scite of the most interesting 
 heathen mysteries. Here, for many ages, was 
 practised a scenical representation of those 
 memorials of paradise, which tradition had 
 preserved to the pagan postdiluvian world; 
 and with these, they perhaps naturally enough, 
 intermingled their ideas of a future state, con- 
 ceived by them to be nearly analogous to that 
 original state of innocence, wherein man had 
 first enjoyed communion with God, before 
 sorrow was known, or sacrifice had become 
 essential to typify that great and holy victim, 
 through whom alone " he could regain the 
 " blissful seat." Traditions of all this appear 
 to have been embodied and hieroglyphically 
 represented to the sight, in a great part of the 
 rites and ceremonies practised on the coast of 
 Campania. The whole shore, from time imme- 
 morial, has been affected by earthquakes, 
 volcanic action, and other natural phenomena 
 of the most extraordinary kind. It was, 
 
46 
 
 moreover, at one period covered with imper- 
 vious forests ; — 
 
 Akty) te \ct)(aa kcu aXaea Tlepae^oveirjg 
 Ma/Cjocu raiyeipoi Kai treat wXeo"tfcap7rot* 
 The barren trees of Proserpine's black woods, 
 Poplars and willows trembling o'er the floods. 
 
 This gloomy aspect, heightened by the rough 
 and hideous appearance of the shore, contri- 
 buted, in no small degree, to invest it with 
 horror. The few, perhaps, who first explored 
 it, discovered amid these lonely shades, nothing 
 but rocky chasms, lakes of naphtha and smok- 
 ing stufo, boiling springs of sulphur, having 
 their sources heated by subterranean fires, and 
 the whole country agitated with volcanic con- 
 vulsions ; — 
 
 Sub pedibus mugire solum, et juga csepta moveri 
 Silvarum, visgeque C3nes ululare per umbram ; 
 . Ibant obscuri sola sub nocte per umbras 
 Perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna. 
 Quale per incertam lunam sub luce maligna 
 Est iter in silvis ubi ca&lum condidit umbra 
 Jupiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem.f 
 
 Now this was just the spot for superstition 
 to fix upon; and here, accordingly, were her 
 
 * Horn. Odyss. K.— 509, f Virg. JEneid. vi. 256 td 272. 
 
47 
 
 rites established, awful and often cruel in the 
 extreme, yet displaying traces of truth, how- 
 ever obscure, and half obliterated. Caverns, 
 groves, lakes, rocks, high-places, and moun- 
 tains were ever of old the usual haunts of 
 priests, and the places which they selected for 
 their idolatrous worship.* But when all these 
 features were found combined in one country, 
 then the situation it afforded became invested 
 with peculiar sanctity. The number of votaries 
 increased; colleges of hierophants were formed, 
 into whose society none were admitted without 
 passing through some dreadful ordeal, by way 
 of initiation. Certain mysterious ceremonies 
 were practised in commemoration of great 
 events which were passed, and of which some- 
 times a part seemed typical of something to 
 come. No means were omitted which might 
 tend to increase that reverential awe with which 
 all looked upon those fearful rites, the real 
 purport of which was known only to a favoured 
 few : — and the " religio loci" acquired in every 
 age new horrors, in proportion as distance of 
 time or place removed these fearful mysteries 
 from their original institution, or separated them 
 from other parts of the world. 
 
 * Heinsii Excurs. iv. ad lib. vii. iEneid. p. 131, et passim. 
 
48 
 
 We need not wonder, therefore, at the view 
 in which the Hades of Campania was consi- 
 dered by the ancients. The whole was in fact 
 one vast sacred enclosure, embracing several 
 miles of country in its extent, and including 
 lakes, groves, gardens, rivers, all on the grand- 
 est scale imaginable, within its hallowed pre- 
 cincts. It was, moreover, looked upon with 
 about as much reason as the Gades, or Cades 
 of Spain, as the boundary of the ocean, the 
 border of the habitable globe, and the abode of 
 departed spirits.* There was " one tree in the 
 " midst" and around it, the usual curious com- 
 pound figures, armed with flames,t manifestly 
 memorializing the cherubic guard and fiery 
 sword on the east of Eden. There were also 
 traditionary vestiges of the river of paradise,:]; 
 which "parted into four heads," and hence 
 
 * Odyss. xi. 14. et al. 
 f In medio ramos annosaque brachia pandit 
 Ulmus opaca ingens — flammisque armata Chimaera 
 Gorgones Harpy reque et forma tricorporis umbrae. 
 
 .aEneid vi. 283—288. 
 This last mentioned tricorporate form was that of Geryon, 
 whose pretended tomb was also said to have been in the 
 paradisaical Gades. 
 
 \ Ev0a fiev eig Axcpovra, TLvpifyXeyEdwvTe peovai 
 KuicvTog 6'og Sri 2rvyo£ vdarog tariv airoppul, — 
 
 Odyss. x. 513. 
 
49 
 
 arose the idea of those infernal streams, of 
 which traces yet seem to remain in the several 
 lakes which now exist, and whose banks were 
 formerly lined with gloomy shades, and impe- 
 netrable forests. Probably they once commu- 
 nicated with each other, forming the Styx, 
 Phlegethon, Acheron, and Cocytus of antiquity. 
 
 Here also, as well as in the Hades of Egypt 
 and other countries, were the " Elysian fields," 
 as they are called by the poets ; and of which 
 Homer, the father of them all, has given us a 
 truly ravishing picture in the fourth Odyssey. 
 
 AXXa <teq HXvffiov tteEiov Kai TTEipcLTa yairjg 
 Adavaroi 7rEfx\povffiv t oS'e favdog YaSafiavdog 
 Trj Trep prjigr] (3lott} tteXel avdpwtfoLffiv 
 Ov vL(f>£Tog, st ap yEijiMv rfoXvg, ute Hot ofifipog 
 A\X uel ZEcpvpoio XiyvitvEWVTas arjras 
 Q,KEavo$ avtr)ffiv ava^vyjuv avdpiorfovs.* 
 " Elysium shall be thine, the flowery plains 
 Of utmost earth, where Rhadamanthus reigns. 
 Joys, ever young, unmix'd with pain or fear, 
 Fill the wide circle of the eternal year. 
 Stern Winter smiles on that auspicious clime, 
 The fields are florid with unfading prime ; 
 From the bleak pole, no winds inclement blow, 
 Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow ; 
 But from the breezy deep, the Blest inhale 
 The fragrant murmurs of the western gale." 
 
 * Odyss. A. 563. 
 
50 
 Virgil's description* is somewhat similar : — 
 
 Devenere locos laetos, et amaena vireta 
 Fortunatorum nemorum, sedesque Beatas ; 
 Largior hie campos aether, et lumine vestit 
 Purpureo, solemque suum, sua sidera norunt. — 
 
 Throughout the whole of this happy region 
 flows the river of paradise, which seems here to 
 have preserved very nearly its original name ; — 
 
 Inter odoratum lauri nemus : unde superne 
 Plurimus Eridani per silvam volvitur amnis. 
 
 The title of " Eridanus" is of Egyptian, or 
 rather perhaps Canaanitish etymology, as is 
 evident from the terms of which it is com- 
 posed, — which are Ur-Adonis ; the rites of tik 
 the sacred light or fire being practised in former 
 ages, upon its borders. The river simply, and 
 out of composition, is Adon, or Eden, or Ado- 
 nis ; and it may be observed, that this is also 
 the name of one of the most famous rivers 
 in Canaan. It ran in the neighbourhood of 
 the city Biblus, where the death of Thammuz, 
 who was the same with Adonis, was every 
 
 * JEneid vi. 638. 
 
51 
 
 year lamented, as our great poet has well 
 described : — 
 
 Thammuz came next behind, 
 Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd 
 The Syrian damsels to lament his fate 
 In amorous ditties, all a summer's day, 
 While smooth Adonis from his native rock 
 Ran purple to the sea, supposed with blood 
 Of Thammuz yearly wounded * 
 
 There were, moreover, delicious gardens 
 entitled Paradisi, and consecrated to the rites 
 of Eden or Adonis, which the heathen looked 
 upon as very sacred. It is possible that the 
 Beth Eden, mentioned in Amos, was an enclo- 
 sure of this kind. However, be that as it may, 
 this remarkable stream introduced as flowing 
 through the regions of happiness, in the Hades 
 of the ancients, must have been a traditionary 
 and commemorative adumbration of that blood 
 expected to be shed by one far greater than 
 Adonis, agreeably to the promise originally 
 delivered in Eden, whereby alone, admission 
 could be obtained into the everlasting paradise 
 of God; of which Elysium presented a faint 
 and feeble type. The mere tradition of such 
 a truth as this, was inestimably important where 
 no better light was to be had ; and here we 
 
 * Paradise Lost, i. 446. Bryant's Analys. vol. ii, p. 75. 
 
 E 
 
52 
 
 may take notice that the name Adonis comes 
 wonderfully near the Hebrew »nnij Adoni, 
 which is a well known title of the Redeemer ; 
 and there was a remarkable solemnity, ac- 
 cording to Julius Firmicus, in honour of this 
 Adonis, which seems to prove his connection 
 by tradition, with the great promise of the De- 
 liverer, first promulgated in the garden of Eden. 
 During the celebration, in the temples, and 
 sacred enclosures, of the rites of Adonis, on a 
 particular night, an image was laid in a bed, 
 over which the priests and others made bitter 
 lamentations; but after some time, light was 
 introduced, and the priest, anointing the mouths 
 of his assistants, solemnly whispered to them 
 in an oracular manner, that "salvation was 
 "come, and deliverance brought to pass;" or 
 
 as Godwyn gives the WOrds " Oappeire rta Oe<i> core 
 
 " yap r)fiiv ek ttoviov uqthpia trust ye in God, for 
 " out of pains is salvation come unto us ;" upon 
 which, their sorrow was turned into the greatest 
 joy, and the sacred image taken up, as it were, 
 out of its sepulchre.* . We may just further 
 
 * Spearman Ixx. letter 2d. Moses and Aaron, p. 186. Both 
 these authors have, however, cited the passage incorrectly. 
 Julius Firmicus gives it as follows, de err. prof, relig. p. 45. 
 Oappeire fxvtrrai r« Sen aeaojefievti 
 Eorcu yap t\\iiv ek Ttoviav ffiorrjpia. 
 
53 
 
 remark here, that the Eridanus, or river of 
 Eden, flowing with blood through the Hades of 
 antiquity, is a tradition of the same nature, as 
 those wonderful trees in the midst of the Cades 
 described by Philostratus, which were said " to 
 " distil drops of blood, in the same manner as 
 "the poplars on the banks of the Eridanus 
 " distilled gold or amber." 
 
 Before any one could enter upon the sacred 
 enclosure in Campania, which we are now 
 describing, or hold any intercourse with what 
 was considered the invisible world, or at least 
 extra orbem terrarum, a peculiar sacrifice was 
 to be offered. The sybil in the iEneid com- 
 mands her hero ; 
 
 Nunc grege de intacto septem mactare juvencos 
 Praestiterit, totidem lectas de more bidentes.* 
 
 Here we have the sabbatic number, just as in 
 the instances of the patriarch Abraham at 
 Beershebah, and the prophet Balaam on the 
 high-places of Moab. The latter, before he 
 could seek for Balak the son of Zippor, the 
 oracular answer he required, directed "seven 
 "bullocks and seven rams" to be offered at 
 each station.^ The blood of the sacrifices was 
 then poured out; and in the Odyssey, the spi- 
 rits of the departed are represented as flocking 
 
 * iEneid vi. 38. t Numbers xxiii. 
 
54 
 
 round the trench which the hero had made to 
 receive it, eager to have a part in the mystical 
 offering, and thus enter through the blood of a 
 victim into the bliss of Elysium. # Surely these 
 awful ceremonies might have told the heathen 
 clearly enough, that "without shedding of 
 " blood there could be no remission of sin ;" and 
 that as it was manifest there could be no 
 atoning virtue in the mere animals themselves, 
 so they were only types of a better sacrifice, 
 4 * slain from the foundation of the world." But 
 there was yet another requisite necessary, 
 according to the author of the iEneid, before 
 the transit of the rivers of death could be 
 effected : — 
 
 Accipe quae peragenda prius. Latet arbore opaca 
 ' Aureus et foliis et lento vimine Ramus 
 Junoni infernae dictus sacer : hunc tegit omnis 
 Lucus et obscuris claudunt convallibus umbrae ; 
 Sed non ante datur telluris operta subire, 
 Auricomos quam quis decerpserit arbore foetus ; 
 Hoc sibi pulcra suum ferri Proserpina munus 
 Tnstituit : primo avulso non deficit alter 
 Aureus, et simili frondescit virga metallo.f 
 
 * Odyss. xi. 25. The like is done by Tiresias in Statius ; 
 by iEson in Valerius Flaccus ; and by Nero in Pliny. See 
 also Seneca's (Edipus, ver. 547, et al. passim. 
 
 t iEneid vi. 136. Claudian de raptu Proserp. lib. ii. 290. 
 Servius supposes that this singular fable of the golden branch 
 
55 
 
 We shall find, if I mistake not, that all this 
 beautiful story of the branch had its source 
 originally in several traditions relative to the 
 expected Saviour of the world, of whom the 
 Tree of Life in paradise was a striking emblem. 
 The same type we find continually referred to 
 in the descriptive visions, both of Ezekiel and 
 the Apocalypse. It is, moreover, always repre- 
 sented as standing " in the midst," and as the 
 prophet* has declared of it, " n^> the branch 
 " thereof shall not fail;" in other words, 
 
 Primo avulso non deficit alter. 
 
 Isaiah,f in referring to the future Messiah, 
 declares; " there shall come forth a rod out of 
 " the stem of Jesse, and a BRANCH shall grow 
 " out of his roots ; and the spirit of the Lord 
 *7 shall rest upon him." This was literally ful- 
 
 J 
 
 alluded " to a tree in the midst of the sacred grove near 
 " Diana's temple ; whither if a fugitive fled for safety, and . 
 " could gather a branch of it, he was safe." A golden bough i$*** 
 formed a part in the sacred mysteries. Clemens Alexandri- 
 nus tells us, from Dionysius Thrax the grammarian, that it 
 was an Egyptian custom to hold a branch in the act of ado- 
 ration. Clem. Strom, lib. v. p. 568. Warburton's Div. Leg, 
 lib, ii. pp. 208, 209. 
 
 * Ezek. xlvii. 12. t Isaiah xi. 1. 
 
56 
 
 filled when St John the Baptist,* afterwards, 
 " saw the spirit descending from heaven like a 
 " dove, and it abode upon him;" the same of 
 whom Zechariahf had written by inspiration ; 
 " I will bring forth my servant the BRANCH;" 
 and again in the same prophet, \ " Behold the 
 " man, whose name is the BRANCH." The 
 heathen, as will be demonstrated hereafter, 
 were not without many traditions of the future 
 sacrifice, which was to be no less a victim than 
 the Son of the King of kings, by whom the 
 power of the serpent w r as to be overthrown, 
 and the happiness of mankind restored. Their 
 / own sybils had even prophesied of his coming ;§ 
 and the daily offerings in their temples of the 
 blood of beasts, were so many tacit acknow- 
 ledgments of the idea they entertained of a 
 propitiatory atonement to be made, in the ful- 
 ness of time! One of the emblems under 
 which they looked forward to this mighty Deli- 
 
 * John i. 32. i. 29, 
 
 f Zech. iii. 8, 
 
 X lb. vi. 12. 
 
 § See this wonderfully illustrated in the work of that 
 learned father Justin Martyr. Cohort ad Graec. i. p. 35. 
 The cave of the Cumaean sybil, whom he mentions as having 
 more particularly prophesied of the Saviour's advent, still 
 exists ; and, in some respects, answers to his description of 
 it, even at this day. 
 
57 
 
 verer, who was also to make expiation for sin, 
 appears to have been the " Ramus or Branch" 
 of the poet, without which they considered that 
 no hope could be entertained of Elysium, or 
 happiness in a future state : — and the primary 
 source from whence they derived this tradition 
 must, I think, have been the Tree of Life in the 
 centre of paradise. 
 
 There is a remarkable epithet bestowed by 
 Virgil upon this wonderful Branch, which was 
 necessary, as a munus or offering, to ensure an 
 entrance into the happy region. He terms 
 it " aureus," which is generally translated 
 " golden," but may in this instance be more pro- 
 perly rendered " glorious ;" and we may resolve it 
 into an original root in the Hebrew language nw 
 Aur,* which means " light and glory." iEneas 
 is informed by the sybil, that he must search 
 for it in the pathless forest, and well knowing 
 that to find it without a guide was next to 
 impossible, he earnestly implores the aid of 
 heaven, which is presently granted ; for scarcely 
 has he finished his prayer, when sacred doves 
 
 * Vere avpos ex Chaldaico Or, lux, lumen, sol ; Vossius de 
 Idol. ii. 27, and 64. Reines. 3 Varr. 13 p. 557. Faber 
 Thesaur. vox. aurum. 
 
58 
 
 appeal*, and lead his footsteps to the desired 
 object : — 
 
 Iiide ubi venere ad fauces graveolentis Averni, 
 Tollunt se celeres, liquidumque per aera lapsa? 
 Sedibus optatis gemind super arbore sidunt, 
 Discolor unde auri per ramos Aura refulsit.* 
 
 The poet seems studiously attentive to retain 
 the term " Aura," though it almost appears like 
 tautology in the last verse. It may, moreover, 
 be observed, that the "gemina arbor" before 
 us, is closely allied to the sacred trees, " of a 
 " mixed nature," which stood in the midst of 
 the Cades in Spain ; both being derived from 
 traditionary accounts of the trees which grew 
 in paradise. 
 
 The rites of the sacred Branch will be met 
 with very frequently throughout mythology; 
 and are, I believe, invariably connected with 
 more or less of paradisaical tradition. Gene- 
 rally, though not by any means exclusively, the 
 palm appears to have been the tree from whence 
 the " Aureus Ramus" was gathered. Now 
 the palm, from its peculiar nature, its straight 
 and lofty growth, its wonderful longevity and 
 
 * iEneid vi. 202. 
 
59 
 
 great fecundity, the permanency and perpetual 
 flourishing of its leaves, was looked upon as a 
 proper emblem to represent the Tree of Life.* 
 Hence, even in the sanctuary of the temple of 
 Solomon,! palm trees were represented on the 
 walls and doors, between the Cherubim. The 
 heathen supposed the palm to be immortal, or 
 at least, that if it did die, it of itself revived, /£ 
 and enjoyed a second life. The Greeks called 
 it QolviZ Phcenix, and gave the same title, as is 
 well known, to the fabulous bird so famous in V 
 all antiquity,' as representing the revivification YtU*t t 
 and immortality of the soul. The Phoenicians;); \'<| 
 and Egyptians, however, called the palm, or 'jffc 
 
 * The Prophetess Deborah dwelt under a palm tree, where 
 probably she worshipped. Judges iv. 5. 
 
 + 1 Kings vi. 29. et seq. vii. 36. There was a precept in 
 the Levitical law to take on a certain festival " branches of 
 '* palm trees, and rejoice before the Lord seven days." Levit. 
 xxiii. 40. There is a place, mentioned Judges xx. 33. called 
 Baal Tamar, or " the palm tree of the god Baal," which 
 perhaps there received idolatrous worship. Branches, or at 
 least a branch of palm, was made use of in the mysteries 
 among the heathen. Apuleius. Metara. lib. xi. p. 383. 
 
 \ Judea, a small part of which was anciently called Phoe- 
 nicia, (from Phoenix, however that title may be analysed,) 
 seems to have been considered as emblematical of a future 
 paradise or state of celestial happiness, and consequently its 
 emblem from time immemorial, has been the Palm* 
 
60 
 
 the Branch of the palm, bai or BAIA ; and both 
 likewise conferred upon the soul of man, which 
 partly from tradition, and partly from oilier 
 internal evidence, they knew to be immortal, 
 the same appellation— Ecm ^ev yap to bai \pvxv.* 
 Accordingly, we find in this very part of Cam- 
 pania which we are describing, an ancient town 
 near the scite of the Elysian fields, which bears 
 to this day, the name of Baiae. The origin of 
 this place* mentioned by the oldest mycolo- 
 gists, is sufficiently evident ; and another 
 instance of the same kind we shall have to 
 notice hereafter. 
 
 The Hades of Campania, moreover, had its 
 fire-tower or Tursis, here called Triton, or 
 Tarit-On ; the latter radical denoting the sacred 
 fire or flame, to the commemoration of which, 
 the temple or tower called Tarit, was set apart 
 and consecrated. It also answered the purpose 
 of a defence to the sacred enclosure, and was 
 supposed to be inhabited by a compound 
 figure, represented upon coins and vases under 
 the form of half a man and half a fish, blowing 
 a concha or sea shell ; which was in fact the 
 usual custom of the priests who really inhabited 
 
 * Horapollo, lib. i. cap. 7. p. 11. See also Parkhurst's 
 Gr. Lexicon, vox Bawv, 
 
61 
 
 places of this nature, when situated upon the 
 coast of any country. From the summit of 
 the Tarit they gave notice of the approach of 
 any vessel to their shores ; the crew of which 
 were generally obliged to sacrifice at least one 
 of their company as an atonement for the rest, 
 and also as the customary means of obtaining 
 an oracular answer to direct their future pro- 
 gress. Virgil, indeed, unwilling to deface and 
 disfigure his poem with so cruel a rite, has 
 represented Misenus as finding a watery grave, 
 and yet he sufficiently hints at what was the 
 real catastrophe.* 
 
 Misenum in littore sicco 
 Ut venere vident indigna morte peremptum ; 
 Misenum iEolidem, quo non praestantior alter 
 JEre ciere viros, Martemque accendere cantu; 
 Sed turn forte cava dum personat aequora concha 
 Demens et cantu vocat in certamina divos, 
 jEmulus exceptum Triton, si credere dignum est, 
 Inter saxa virum spumosa immerserat unda. 
 
 Had the unhappy trumpeter really fallen into 
 the sea, inter saxa, it is perhaps little likely 
 they would have been able to procure his corse, 
 for the magnificent funeral afterwards described, 
 and which contributes so materially to the 
 
 * ^neid vi. 162—174. 
 
62 
 
 sublime solemnity of that part of the iEneid. 
 The matter is explained, however, by consider- 
 ing him as the usual victim offered up to the 
 deity supposed to reside in the Triton or fire- 
 tower, represented as above mentioned under a 
 compound figure, the customary vestige of the 
 Cherubim. 
 
 Within a day's sail from the Hades of Cam- 
 pania was the celebrated island of Circe the 
 enchantress, which was in fact only another 
 spot dedicated to idolatrous worship arising 
 out of paradisaical traditions, similar to those 
 we have already considered. Its situation was 
 considered by the ancients in the same light 
 with that of Hades ; for Homer makes Ulysses 
 say ;*— 
 
 Qi (f)i\oi, ov yap tl^jxiv onr) %o(f>OQ f ov$ oiir\ -qiag, 
 OvS ottt) rjeXtog ^aecrifi^poTOQ iter' vko ycuav 
 Ovd oirr\ avvEirai — 
 
 We know not here, what land before us lies, 
 Or to what quarter now we turn our eyes, 
 Or where the sun shall set, or where shall rise. 
 
 * Odyss. x. 190. Circe was, in Italy, what her sister 
 Medea was in the sacred enclosure at Colchis, which we 
 shall consider presently. This, however, furnishes another 
 proof that these traditionary memorials were all derived from 
 one and the same source ; for on no other ground can their 
 exact analogy be explained. 
 
63 
 
 The whole island was covered with a thick 
 grove, in the midst of which stood the palace, 
 or perhaps the temple of Circe, guarded by 
 mountain wolves and brindled lions; — 
 
 Hinc exaudiri gemitus iraeque leonum 
 Vincla recusantum, et sera sub nocte rudentum ; 
 Setigerique sues, atque in praesepibus ursi 
 Saevire, ac formae magnorum ululare luporum, 
 Quos hoDiinum ex facie dea saeva potentibus herbis.* 
 
 Ulysses is preserved from the fate of his 
 companions through the marvellous influence 
 of the herb Moly,f which is presented him by 
 Mercury, who appears to him in the grove 
 under a human form, and is styled by the poet 
 " Epfxeias XpvffoppaTTig Hermes the golden Branch- 
 " bearer." And we may here observe that the 
 same title is bestowed upon Teiresias in Hades, 
 who is called by Homer " the bearer of the 
 " golden rod or Branch." It is also remarkable 
 
 * JEneid vii. 15. 
 
 f The plant called Moly may be considered as another 
 memorial derived from the Tree of Life ; it was supposed to 
 preserve the bearer from all peril, especially that, which he 
 might incur within the precincts of the sacred grove. Homer 
 describes it as known only to the immortals. See also a 
 good remark on this point in the Ancient Univers. Hist. vol. 
 i. p. 126. 
 
64 
 
 that this prophet of the invisible world had, 
 according to Diodorus, a daughter named 
 Daphne, a priestess at the oracle of Delphi, 
 which we shall notice hereafter. The name of 
 Daphne however, signifies a Branch of laurel, 
 which on some occasions was held in almost 
 equal repute with the Ramus or Branch of the 
 palm tree, and both are often found in mytho- 
 logy confounded together. Whenever any 
 person was seized with a dangerous distemper 
 which threatened dissolution, it was usual to 
 fix both these over his door : — 
 
 PAMNON te Kai k\cl$ov AA$NH2 
 
 YffEp SvprjV EdrfKEV. 
 
 as Laertius* mentions, in his life of Bion the 
 Boristhenite ; and it may be here remarked, 
 that the staff of Esculapius, who was looked 
 upon as the renewer or restorer of human life, 
 and on that account the sufferer of divine 
 vengeance for the sake of man ; this wonderful 
 staff, connected as it ever was with the serpent, 
 is in fact a traditionary type of the same nature 
 as the Aureus Ramus of Hades, and derived 
 from the same source, namely, the Tree of Life 
 
 * Cited in Potter's Arch. vol. i. 
 
65 
 
 in paradise. The same may be also said of 
 the Thyrsus of Bacchus, the Caduceus of 
 Mercury, and even the Club of Hercules ;* and 
 it is observable that all these deities were often 
 looked upon as connected more or less with 
 Hades. Even Adonis was said to have derived 
 his origin from the Branch of a tree, which 
 grew in the midst of a sacred garden. 
 
 There was another Hades besides that of 
 Campania, on the shores of Epirus in Thespro- 
 tia, near the Ambraciau Gulph, and opposite 
 the island of Corcyra. The same paradisaical 
 features are also here discoverable. There 
 was a river "parting into four heads," which 
 seem to have had similar titles conferred upon 
 them. Here was an Acheron; an Avernus, 
 like that in Italy and Spain, exhaling pestilen- 
 tial vapours ; a Cocytus ; and a Stygian stream. 
 Near a lake Acherusia,f into which the Ache- 
 
 *Palaeph. de incred. hist. p. 51. Apul. Metam. ut supra, 
 as to the Caduceus of Mercury being derived from the 
 golden bough in Hades. 
 
 f The title Acherusia appears as well in this, as in other 
 instances, to have been conferred upon the lake, the cave, 
 and the eminence or high-place which overhung both. 
 Crowning the whole was a solemn grove of plane trees 
 Hepi tu)v ett aKprjg avrrjg 7r£(f>VKviop irkaravuv kcll tov e7ravrr] 
 Tcehov, kcli $OK£i avTodi Karafiacrig eiq aSov vnapyjiiv* Aret. 
 
66 
 
 ron flowed, was an ancient temple called 
 Chimserium, once sacred to the compound 
 figure Chimaera, which represented as well the 
 traditional vestiges of the Cherubim, as also of 
 the revolving fire, or " flaming sword," which 
 served as the defence of paradise. Hard by was 
 a spot called Phcenice,* answering, I apprehend, 
 to the Baiae in Italy, and formerly consecrated to 
 the worship of the palm or fowl Phoenix, the 
 emblem of the Tree of Life, A river Acheron 
 will be found in many other parts of the world ; 
 a fact that evinces how universally these tradi- 
 tions once prevailed, and how far the idolatrous 
 worship had spread, which sprang out of them. 
 There was an Acheronf in the country of the 
 Brutii, with several places near it of the same 
 name with those in Thresprotia ; and connected 
 with them was the history of Proserpine, who 
 was fabled to have come over thither, and 
 gathered flowers. Her history will be men- 
 tioned again hereafter, and shewn to be wholly 
 derived from paradisaical tradition. There 
 
 Cnid. lib. rer. Maced. secundo. Nat. Comes, lib. iii. p. 59. 
 Pausanias mentions an Acherusia near Corinth, lib. ii. p. 196. 
 And there were also many others. 
 
 * Strabo. lib. vii. p. 499. Polybius, lib. i. pp. 94, 95. 
 
 f Strabo, lib, vi. p. 466. 
 
67 
 
 was an Acherontia* also in Apulia, mentioned 
 as a mountain, and probably so called from the 
 river Acheron, which flowed at its foot. There 
 was a sacred cave called Acherusia in the 
 Chersonesus Taurica, through which Hercules 
 was said to have dragged the dog Cerberus 
 from hell; and the same story is connected 
 with other places of the same kind. Now 
 Cerberus, in his compounded figure and other 
 circumstances, presents to our view only ano- 
 ther trace of the cherubic exhibition on the east 
 of Eden, which guarded the way to the Tree of 
 Life, as Cerberus is also represented for ever 
 watching over the gates of Hades and the 
 entrance into Elysium. From the last men- 
 tioned cave in the Chersonesus, rushed the river 
 Acheron, and the whole place was looked upon 
 as the descent into the invisible world ; — 
 
 Evda fiev eig Aidao naraij3aris earn keXevQoq 
 Akttjte 7rpo/3\r)$ A-^epovfftag v\podi reivei. 
 AivrjetQT AXEPON avrrjv diaveiodt T£\ivtav 
 AKprjQ ek fxeyaXrjg itpoypaQ trjffi <j)apayyog.f 
 There is the passage to the shades below, 
 There Acherusia's o'erhanging brow — 
 Whose sever'd foot stern Acheron divides, 
 And rolls from out the cave her gulphy tides. 
 
 * Hor. lib. iii. od. 4. ver. 14. 
 
 f Apollon. Rhod. apud Nat. Com. lib. iii. cap. 1. p. 58. 
 
60 
 
 Here also was a Chimaerium, or Cimmerium, 
 as Pomponius Mela* writes it, of the same 
 nature with that in Epirus. There were more- 
 over many sacred places bearing* the appellation 
 of Avernus, and which were all, more or less, 
 considered as exhaling noxious vapours. Some- 
 times the name was given to lakes, as in the 
 instances of the Hades in Campania, Spain, 
 and Thesprotia. It was also conferred upon 
 rocks and some of the most celebrated high- 
 places, which derived their origin from the 
 same source, up to which all garden and grove 
 worship is in fact to be traced. There was a 
 famous rock of this name in India,f or as some 
 authors think, more than one. It is mentioned, 
 both by Strabo and Dionysius, and was situ- 
 ated near the source of the Indus, which river, 
 as will be seen hereafter, was anciently called 
 Phison or Pison, the immediate name of one of 
 the rivers of paradise mentioned by Moses. 
 Upon it, or in its neighbourhood, and perhaps 
 surrounding it, was a sacred grove, which Alex- 
 ander the Great caused to be cut down when 
 he besieged the place, according to Curtius ; 
 although the whole enclosure was looked 
 
 * Pomp. Mela, lib. i. cap. 19. 
 
 t Strabo xv. p. 1008. Dionysius Perieg. v. 1151. Quint. 
 Curt. viii. 11. 
 
69 
 
 upon as so holy, that Hercules himself was, said 
 to have desisted from assaulting it, being deter- 
 red by an earthquake. Aristophanes* speaks 
 of a consecrated eminence or high -place, 
 which had the title of Acheron. He names 
 
 it " A^epovnog ffKorfeXog ai/xaro;ayr/c the TOck of 
 
 " Acheron dropping with blood ;" the origin of 
 which was, the cruelties practised by the priests 
 in their offering human sacrifices ;f and from 
 whence that custom was derived will be ex- 
 
 * Barpax 474. 
 
 f One mode of their offering these human expiatory sacri- 
 fices, was by shoving off the victim headlong from the edge 
 of the precipice. Possibly this may explain the story of 
 Sisyphus, represented in Hades, as for ever rolling a stone 
 up a high hill, the summit of which is no sooner apparently 
 reached, than the burden is again tumbled to the bottom. 
 Odyss. xi. 592. Rocks and eminences were sometimes 
 called Patora, an Egyptian title of these sacred places. 
 Mythology rendered the Patora, in this case, by a word 
 somewhat similar in the Greek language, Trerpa; and the 
 poets represented it as a moving stone, broken perhaps from 
 the verge of the precipice in hurling him off, and with the 
 ghost of the victim eternally rolling down the mountain. We 
 shall have occasion to notice hereafter these iferpai more 
 particularly, and demonstrate their connection with paradi- 
 saical rites. Not strangers, however, only were sacrificed 
 on places of this nature, but also criminals ; and Sisyphus 
 might have been one of these, as he bears the character of a 
 thief in the annals of antiquity. 
 
70 
 
 plained iiv another place. In fact all these 
 lakes, rivers, rocks, and sacred enclosures, 
 connected as they were with the Hades, or 
 future world of the ancients, which was mainly 
 composed of traditions relative to the paradi- 
 saical state of innocence and bliss which man- 
 kind had forfeited, and to which it was natu- 
 rally supposed a future state of things would 
 be analogous, not only prove the vast extent to 
 which memorials of the garden of Eden had 
 prevailed ; but likewise shew the extreme anti- 
 quity of those memorials, which thus furnish 
 their collateral testimony to the truth and 
 consistency of the history given by Moses. 
 
 We must not, however, omit noticing the 
 Hades in Egypt, where was a lake Acherusia, 
 on the south of Memphis, on the banks of 
 which stood the shady temple of Hecate, with 
 the ports of Cocytus and Lethe. When a 
 person died, after many mysterious ceremonies 
 had been performed upon his corpse, it was 
 laid in a boat and wafted over the lake to the 
 other side; here were certain judges, before 
 whom it was solemnly arraigned, and a strict 
 inquiry instituted into the life of the deceased. 
 If the individual were condemned, it was 
 denied a burial ; but if otherwise, it was interred 
 
71 
 
 in the Elysian fields.* The name of the ferry- 
 man was Charon, and those of the judges were 
 Rhadamanthus and Minos, according to some 
 authors, and hence many have thought Homer 
 and Virgil borrowed the principal features of 
 the eleventh Odyssey, and sixth iEneid. How- 
 ever, it is enough for us to observe the same 
 traces of the same traditions as we have 
 universally discovered elsewhere, even in places 
 with which Egypt perhaps had little or no 
 connection, or intercourse. Albricus,! in his 
 picture of Hades, personifies it as a god sitting 
 on a throne of sulphur, holding a sceptre in his 
 right hand, and binding a soul with his left. 
 From his feet issue four rivers, or rather " a 
 " river parting into four heads;" while near 
 them is represented a lake called Styx or 
 Avernus. All around stand several compound 
 figures, some winged and with the faces of 
 virgins; these were conceived to be Harpies, 
 Furies, and the Fates, the last of whom (or at 
 least one of them) are employed in cutting 
 short the life of man; — probably a mutilated 
 tradition of that awful truth, that with sin 
 
 * Sandy's Travels, p. 136. Dacier sur. xi. Odyss. Strabo 
 lib. iii. p. 223. Plutarch in Sertorio. 
 t Albricus de deor. imag. x. 313. 
 
72 
 
 " death entered into the world." The serpent, 
 moreover, is not omitted in this hieroglyphic 
 description. 
 
 There is a remarkable account in iElian of 
 a wonderful continent, answering, in some 
 respects, to the vast Atlantic island mentioned 
 by Plato, with its traditionary history, derived, 
 as he affirms, from Egypt. It seems to repre- 
 sent to us another instance of their allegorical 
 ideas of paradise, looked upon by the heathens 
 as the future and invisible world. The histo- 
 rian informs us, from Theopompus, that upon 
 the bounds of the happy region " there was a 
 "place called Ayoorov Anoston, which signifies 
 " sine reditu, or the abode from whence there 
 " was no return. It was like a gloomy chasm 
 " or cave, neither light nor dark, but sufficiently 
 "obscure. Here were two rivers, the one 
 " haonhs KaXeioSai called the river of Eden, or 
 " of pleasure ; and the other, that of sorrow : — 
 " over against both of these, grew extraordinary 
 "trees of the size of a mighty palm. Those 
 " which overhung the river of Sorrow bore fruit, 
 " which proved the source of endless tears to 
 " those who tasted ; — but those which were by 
 " the river of Eden had fruit, of which whosoever 
 " ate were delivered from all other desires, and 
 
73 
 
 " obtained youth and immortality/'* The deli- 
 cious valley of Tempe, so exquisitely described 
 by the same author, was also a consecrated 
 enclosure, of which the history and accompa- 
 nying circumstances present us with paradi- 
 saical memorials. The river Peneus, a most 
 remarkable stream rolled through it " «Xai« &^v 
 " as smooth as oil," connected with which were 
 the Styx and Tiresias, the latter stream bearing 
 the same title as Homer's prophet of Hades. 
 The poet, indeed, terms this river Titaresius, or 
 Tith-Tiresias, and probably there might have 
 been near it an altar or mound of earthf raised 
 in honour of the Seer, who was also mysteri- 
 ously connected both with the institution of 
 marriage and the serpent. The whole vale 
 
 * /Elian also mentions other paradisaical features, such as 
 the freedom of the happy inhabitants from labour and sorrow, 
 the spontaneous production of every thing delightful to the 
 eye and taste, and the abundance of gold and precious 
 things which were there so common. It may be remembered 
 that, with respect to the real paradise, Moses has recorded 
 that " the name of the first river is Phison, which compasseth 
 u the whole land of Haviiah, where there is gold ; and the gold 
 " of that land is good ; there is bdellium and the onyx stone." 
 iElian. Var. Hist. lib. iii. 18. et lib. iii. 1. pp Eden, whence 
 r)lovn pleasure, and tSavog pleasant. Parkhurst. in voc. 
 
 f Which is the signification of the radical Tith, at least 
 in some instances. See Bryant, vol. ii. p. 128. 
 
74 
 
 must have embraced in its precincts the most 
 delicious paradise in the world, since that of 
 Eden; and that it was considered as a place 
 eminently holy, is proved from the numberless 
 sacrifices which were here offered, and the 
 traditions connected with them.* The Thessa- 
 lians affirmed that in the valley of Tempe, 
 Apollo, after Ms victory over the serpent, under- 
 went a lustration. Here also he was crowned 
 with laurel, and according to some, with that 
 mysterious fruit, the gathering of which had 
 proved the source of all evil, and occasioned 
 the necessity of that victory over the serpent. 
 Hence, moreover, " having first gathered a 
 1 ' sacred Branch with his own right hand," he 
 came as conqueror to Delphi ; and it is added, 
 that an altar was reared in that very place 
 where he was crowned, and from whence the 
 Branch was gathered. Every ninth year there 
 was a celebrated procession to Tempe of noble 
 youths, who performed a splendid ceremony, 
 and then returned with garlands on their heads 
 composed of the same laurel with which the 
 deity had been before adorned, who is said, 
 moreover, to have undergone all this labour 
 
 * Hygin. Fab. 140. Pausanias in Phoc. Apollod. Bibli- 
 othec. lib. i. Lucianus de Gymn. p. 384. Salmur. 1619. Cur- 
 tius de ludis Pyth. p. 33. Id de hortis, p. 34. 
 
*50 - 0? THE ** 
 
 "out of love" to mankind. They always 
 entered the valley on these occasions by the 
 Way which was called Pythias, from the triumph 
 of Apollo over the serpent Python. 
 
 There is a remarkable grove, mentioned by 
 Callimachus in his hymn to Ceres,* which was 
 consecrated to her as the mother of Proserpine, 
 (whom we shall perceive hereafter to have been 
 the Eve of mythology) by the Pelasgi. 
 
 Tiv $ avra xaXov ccX<ro$ sitwqa'OLvro HsXoco-yot 
 
 Aev8p£<rty ccpfi\a,<p£$ — Sice y.zv pokis yXQsv 01505 ; 
 
 Ev Virus sv [AeyaXcu tftstecci ecrav, ev h xou oyvcu 
 1 Ev §e xaXoc yXuKv^aXcc — to $w$ aXsxrpivov vSoup 
 
 E% apoLpav ctveths — 
 " Sacred to thee, a beauteous grove was seen, 
 
 So thick, an arrow could not pass between ; 
 
 By the Pelasgi planted round thy shrine, 
 
 There the elm rear'd her stately head— and pine 
 
 Coniferous. There the pear and apple grew, 
 
 Sweet to the taste, and tempting to the view." 
 
 Virgil, in his second Georgic,f speaks of the 
 last mentioned tree as follows : — 
 
 Media fert tristes succos, tardumque saporem 
 Felicis mali, quo non praesentius ullum 
 Pocula si quando saevoe infecere novercae 
 Auxilium venit, ac membris agit atra venena. 
 
 * This goddess was sometimes represented as standing 
 between two trees. " £rat Ceres inter duas arbores pomis 
 " onustas." Albricus. Phil, de Deo. imag. 23. 
 
 t Ver. 126. 
 
76 
 
 Media is here an extraordinary epithet,* for 
 this tree was a native of many other countries 
 beside Media, Assyria, and Persia. Originally 
 I conjecture this Arbor Mali was so called, 
 from the tradition of, and its being considered 
 to represent, " the tree of the knowledge of 
 " good and evil in the midst of the garden" of 
 Eden. 
 
 The gardens of Alcinous, in the island of 
 Corcyra, appear to present us with several 
 vestiges of the Mosaical picture of paradise. 
 
 EvSa, §£ fevtysa, xa,Xtx,f tfs<pvx£i TyXsSoujvi'a, 
 Oyvcu kxi poicu kou pyXsou ayXctoxapitoi 
 2f>ca< fs yXvxspat %<u eXccai fyXeScuxrai 
 Toloov ovtfors yia^itog aitoXXvtoLi ov$' zitiXsntei 
 Xei[j*(x,fo$, ovh Qep£v$ rtrfycios, ccXXa, paX aiei 
 Z£<pvpirj iiv£iov<roL t to. y,sv <puei, aAAa fs Ttstrcsi. 
 Here beauteous trees for ever blooming grew 
 Pomegranates, apples tempting to the view. 
 Sweet figs, and verdant olives, flourish'd fair, 
 And the branch bent beneath the weighty pear ; 
 The balmy spirit of the western gale 
 Eternal breath'd on fruits untaught to fail ; 
 The same mild season gave the blooms to blow, 
 The buds to harden, and the fruits to grow. 
 
 •Meed is one of the most ancient Amonian radicals, 
 denoting wisdom, knowledge, prescience, and the like. 
 
 t KaXa is the reading of Athenaeus, though fxaicpa is the 
 usual epithet found in this place, in the common editions of 
 the Iliad. Odyss. H. 114. 
 
77 
 
 It is easy to perceive how near all this comes 
 to the description of the inspired historian. 
 " Out of the ground the Lord God made to 
 " grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight 
 " and good for food." In the centre of the 
 garden were " two # fountains," which, as we 
 have already seen in the instance of the Gades 
 of Spain, and shall hereafter have abundant 
 opportunity of perceiving, generally were found 
 in the paradisi of the heathen. Eustathius tells 
 us that the lovely country of the Phoeacians, as 
 described to us by Homer, was in fact only a 
 representation of the islands of the Blessed, 
 which will hereafter be demonstrated to have 
 been mainly composed of paradisaical memo- 
 rials. Justin Martyr directly affirms that "the 
 "garden of Alcinous" was nothing more than 
 "a heathen representation of paradise:" — 
 
 T« IIAPAAEISOY Se eikovo. rov AXkivoo Ktjirov awfciv iriitoiriKE 
 
 are the very words of this learned father, 
 who has transcribed the above description 
 into his first exhortation.f We may there- 
 
 *Ev h dvoi Kprjvai. These may also describe the beauty 
 and freshness of these sacred gardens. Any place richly 
 watered, seems to have been compared to Eden, Gen. 
 xiii. 10. 
 
 t Cohort, ad Graec, p. 27» 
 
78 
 
 fore consider the whole as a sacred enclo- 
 sure :— 
 
 Without the gates the spacious garden lies 
 From storms defended, and inclement skies ; 
 Four acres was the allotted space of ground, 
 Fenc'd with a high enclosure all around. 
 
 Closely connected with it was a corrupted 
 representation of the sacred tabernacle or she- 
 chin ah, with the cherubic exhibition on the east 
 of Eden. This was the temple or palace of 
 Alcinous, and was singularly magnificent and 
 superb. 
 
 figs yccp yeXiou cciyty tfskev, rp o-£\Y t vy)$ 
 Awpa %aft 'vtyepstyss psyaXrjrogo; Ahxivooio 
 Xa,XK£0i fj,£V yap Toiyoi eXijAa^ar £v0a xat £v5a 
 Eg pvxpv e% bSb — Tts^i h Sgiynos xvavoio. 
 Xpvcsiou 8e Svpott tfvKivov fopov evto; espyov 
 Kpyvpeoi §£ vtabpoi £v ^aXKEco esolvolv sSco. 
 Apyv§sov 5* £<f>' vtfspQvpiov, xP v<rsy ) ^ £ ^°^ vr }* 
 The front appear' d with. radiant splendors gay, 
 Bright as the lamp of night, or orb of day. 
 The walls were massive brass ; — the cornice high 
 Blue metals crown'd in colours of the sky , — 
 Rich plates of gold the folding-doors incase, 
 The pillars silver, on a brazen base ; 
 Silver the lintels, deep projecting o'er, 
 And gold the ringlets that command the door. 
 
79 
 
 We perceive in the above, some mutilated 
 remains distorted by pagan corruptions, of " the 
 " likeness of the firmament upon the heads of 
 " the living creatures, which was as the colour 
 " of the terrible chrystal stretched forth over 
 " their heads above. And above the -firmament 
 " that was over their heads, was the likeness of 
 " a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire."* 
 So in the palace of Alcinous there were thrones 
 within ; and without, in the front of the shining 
 edifice, were living and mysterious images, the 
 work of Vulcan, and presenting, however ob- 
 scurely, some vestiges of the cherubic-animal 
 exhibition on the east of Eden. 
 
 Xpvasioi F BxccfsgQe kou ctpyvgioi tcws; £<rav 
 Ov$ H<j>a<<rro£ £?v%ev i8vir}<rt tpAitiSetrari, 
 Aovpa, §vXx<r<r£[j,evai frsyaXyrogos AXxivooio 
 ASaya-fa; ovfocg xai ay^puj; r^ara tfavfa,. 
 Two rows of stately dogs on either hand 
 In sculptur'd gold, and labour'd silver stand. 
 These Vulcan form'd with art divine to wait 
 Immortal guardians at Alcinous' gate ; 
 Alive each animated frame appears, 
 And still to live beyond the power of years. 
 
 All these traditional memorials of paradise 
 must have come originally out of the east, and 
 
 * Ezek. i. 22 — 26. A similar instance of heathenish imita- 
 tion is mentioned by Philostratus de Vit. Apoll. lib. iii. cap. 11. 
 
 f \M* 
 
80 
 
 therefore may be found, as might be reasonably 
 expected, amongst the Syrians, and other orien- 
 tal nations. The paradise of Phaneas,* in 
 Palestine, and the celebrated Eden, (so called 
 to this day) in the shades of Mount Lebanon, 
 which both Ptolemy and Stephanust term 
 Uapafci<roQ a paradisos, were consecrated gardens 
 of the nature before described. To these may 
 be added the gardens of Daphne upon the 
 Orontes, described by Strabo. £ They consisted 
 of " a grove, vast and shady, irrigated with 
 *' fountains of water, which preserved it for ever 
 f? cool and verdant. In the midst was a temple 
 " and asylum of Apollo, together with a fane 
 x< consecrated to Diana, whither the inhabitants 
 " of Antioch were accustomed to resort, and 
 " celebrate their festivals. The circumference 
 41 of the sacred grove was fourscore stadia. In 
 
 * There was another place named Phanoe in the island of 
 Chius, sacred to Apollo, and celebrated for palm-trees. 
 
 t See a very excellent note on this in the var. editions of 
 Sulp. Severus, p. 6, and the authorities there cited. The 
 Persians were accustomed to these sacred gardens, in which 
 there were not only fountains and other symbols of paradise, 
 but they also preserved a number of different wild animals in 
 them, which were made to live together in a state of harmony 
 and peace, emblematic of the life led by the animal creation 
 in the garden of Eden. 
 
 X Strabo, lib. xvi. p. 1089 et 1096. 
 
81 
 
 " this place they feign that a dreadful serpent 
 " called Typhon was overthrown by x4pollo," 
 and from this mythological circumstance, the 
 river Orontes, which watered the garden of 
 Daphne, was, to. a certain extent, called after 
 the name of the monster, Typhon. Now Ty- 
 phon, by an easy transition of its radical letters, 
 is certainly the same as the serpent Python, the 
 history of both, moreover, being so decidedly 
 analogous. It cannot but have struck the 
 attentive reader how universally this legend of 
 the serpent is connected with all the instances 
 of heathen paradisi, which we meet with in 
 ancient writers. 
 
 We shall find this remarkably illustrated in 
 the case of the garden of the Hesperides.* 
 
 * There was also a fountain of ambrosia or immortality in 
 the midst of the garden of the Hesperides, answering to the 
 Tree of Life. Eurip. Hippol. v. 750. A late writer and emi- 
 nently learned missionary well observes, that " the Tree of 
 " Life, the fountain or well of life, and the water of life, all 
 " seem identified in scripture. As in the garden of Eden 
 " the Tree of Life was an emblem or pledge of happiness to 
 " Adam, had he continued in innocency, so the water of 
 " life, flowing through the paradise in heaven, is an emblem 
 " of that eternal glory, which Christ the second Adam has 
 " secured for all who believe." Henry Martyn's Sermons. 
 2d ed. p. 198. 
 
82 
 
 This celebrated place was situated on the 
 extreme verge of Ethiopia in Africa, and not 
 far from Meroe. As is usual with almost all 
 places of this nature, it was considered as on the 
 borders of the world, or as if it hardly belonged 
 to it. Atlas is said to have surrounded it on 
 all sides with high mountains, on account of an 
 ancient oracle, which affirmed that the Son of 
 the Deity would at a certain time arrive, open 
 a way of access thither, and carry off the 
 golden apples, which hung on a mysterious tree 
 in the midst of the garden. There is a very 
 curious antique yet extant, as I have before 
 remarked, in which Hercules is represented 
 standing with an apple in his hand before the 
 Tree, around which a serpent is enfolded, as 
 described by Lucretius : — 
 
 Aureaque Hesperjdum servans fulgentia mala 
 Asper acerba tuens immani corpore Serpens 
 Arboris amplexus stirpem.* 
 
 This serpent, who for ever watched the fruit 
 of this mysterious tree, was said to have been 
 born of Typhon, another serpent ; but in fact 
 
 * Lucret. de Nat. Rer. v. 33. Virg. iEneid iv. 482. Lucan. 
 Phar. ix. 367. 
 
83 
 
 they were both one and the same, and Typhon, 
 by a slight transposition, is none other than 
 Python, as was observed before, the appellation 
 under which we most generally discover the 
 mythological monster which tradition told the 
 heathen had been the source of all evil, and 
 was to be vanquished only by the Son of the 
 Supreme Being in a human form. Now the 
 very name Pytho, or Python, evidently desig- 
 nates the great deceiver of the world, from ms 
 Pyth, or nnis Pythe, "to overpersuade, # or 
 " deceive." When the damsel who followed 
 the apostle Paul, is said to have been "pos- 
 " sessed with a spirit of divination," (certainly 
 a spirit of the devil,) it is named in the original 
 "nvevna nreaNOSf a spirit of Python;" mani- 
 festly shewing that the pagan Python was none 
 other than a traditionary memorial of " that 
 "old serpent, called the devil and satan,J 
 " which deceived the whole world." But the 
 serpent of the garden of the Hesperides had 
 also another name, that of Ladon, which is the 
 contraction of El-Adon, " the god of the garden 
 " of Eden ;" which clearly proves the whole to 
 
 * See Spearman's Letters on the lxx. p. 85. 
 f Acts xvi. 16. 
 I Revel, xx. 2. 
 
i 
 
 84 
 
 be a paradisaical tradition. .ApoMonius de- 
 scribes the matter as follows:—- 
 
 H\a£ofi£voi i£,ovd tepov irtdov-, at zvi AAAiiN 
 Eio-frt ttov xdiZov Trayyjpvata pvero fxrjXa, 
 Xwpw iv ArXavroQ ^doviog o<jng aju^i <k vv/x^>at 
 E<r7T£pi$££ ironrvvov etyifiepov aeifiovaai 
 A77 rote yr}$r) kelvoq vty 1 HpaicXijt ^clij^elq 
 
 MtlXtOV /3f/3\7/T-0 rfOTE (TTVTtOQ* 
 
 Then came they to the sacred place, where kept 
 The serpent Ladon watch, nor ever slept ; 
 In the Atlantian land the garden lies, 
 And there the apples hung, a golden prize ; 
 About the tree the wary dragon wound, 
 And the 'Hedrieri&es were heard around ; 
 Till great Alcides, son of Jove and fame, 
 Engag'd the serpent, and at length o'ercame. 
 
 Belonging to Hhe consecrated garden was a 
 temple, kept by a priestess, according to some ; 
 and according to others, by three nymphs, 
 called the Hesperides. Here, also, were the 
 daughters of Phorcus connected with the Gor- 
 gons, all compounded figures, who had the 
 custody of the sacred fire, which was consi- 
 dered as the protection of the enclosure. 
 Indeed, by more than one author, this same 
 Phorcus was thought to have been the father of 
 
 * Apoll. Rhod. apud. Nat. Com. lib. vii. 7. p. 217. 
 
85 
 
 the serpent slain by Hercules. At all events, 
 we find here the usual vestiges of the cherubic 
 guard, however mutilated and distorted. Scylla 
 was by some considered as having been one of 
 the Gorgons who kept the consecrated garden, 
 and so was Medusa. They all had golden 
 wings, as the tradition reported, as also brazen 
 hands, with the teeth of various animals. Some- 
 times Hercules is said to have slain the serpent 
 with his club, which is to be identified with tlie 
 sacred Branch, as has been already mentioned. 
 After his victory over the giants, he is affirmed 
 to have consecrated it to Mercury, when, on 
 being thrust into the ground, it grew into a 
 mighty tree.* 
 
 There were, also, in several parts of the east, 
 paradisi dedicated to Bacchus. The god him- 
 self, as Phiiostratus writes, "enclosed a large 
 "tract of land, cultivated it as a garden, and 
 "planted planes and laurels." Near it was a 
 temple, and the presiding priest and priestess 
 were a man and his wife, clothed in skins, and 
 who lived upon the fruits of the garden. This 
 is said to have happened in Nisa, a mountain 
 of India, though there were also many other 
 places of this name.| Bacchus is declared by 
 
 * Nat. Com. lib. vii. 1. 206. f Bryant, Anal, vol. iv. p. 251. 
 
86 
 
 Phornutus* to have been the first planter of 
 trees, and cultivator of gardens ; and this was 
 the case during a sort of golden age, before war 
 and destruction had made their appearance in 
 the world. The obscene rites of the Phallus, 
 which often occurred in these gardens, cannot 
 but have arisen from a perhaps obscure tradition 
 of the holy institution of marriage, which the 
 polluted minds of men abused to some of the 
 worst purposes of idolatry. Bacchus himself 
 is represented naked, in unhallowed allusion to 
 that pure and blissful state of our first parents 
 in Eden, when "they were both naked, the 
 "man and his wife, and were not ashamed." 
 His car is represented as drawn by lions and 
 leopards, as well as other beasts of prey; repre- 
 senting, hieroglyphically, the tradition which 
 the heathen had of the paradisaical state of the 
 animal creation.f Here, also, we meet with 
 the serpent ; for those who partook of the cere- 
 monies used to carry serpents in their hands, 
 and with horrid screams called upon " Eva! — 
 " Eva {"-—They then crowned themselves with 
 these reptiles, still indulging in the same 
 frantic exclamations. Epiphanius, Clemens of 
 
 * De Nat. Deor. p. 81. 
 
 t Id. p. 85. The same also is said of Rhea and Cybele. 
 
87 
 
 Alexandria,* and many others, are all of decided 
 opinion that this horrid invocation had relation 
 to the great mother of mankind, " who being 
 " deceived, was in the transgression." 
 
 It is observable that most of these gardens 
 were oracular. There is, perhaps, no desire of 
 knowledge more natural to man in his present 
 fallen state, than that of the knowledge of 
 futurity. Hence it has proved the aim of a 
 vast majority of minds, in all ages and parts of 
 the world, to pry into futurity. And yet it 
 must be owned that the practice has not been, 
 nor indeed ever can be, conducive to the real 
 happiness of mankind ; and it is undoubtedly 
 to be traced up to the bitter fruit of the " tree 
 " of knowledge of good and evil," that the 
 human race have ever followed, or been desirous 
 to follow, a course of conduct so decidedly 
 opposed to their actual welfare and happiness.'f 
 Yet it will be found in the end a singular proof 
 of the once happy existence of man in a paradi- 
 saical state. It has ever been a received opi- 
 nion, even amongst heathen nations, that there 
 
 * Epiphan. torn. ii. lib. iii. p. 1092. Clem. Alex. Cohort, 
 p. 11. Euseb. Prep. Evan. lib. ii. 3. 
 
 f II est vrai que le desir de le connoitre est une des plus 
 anciennes maladies de V esprit humain, comme elle en est 
 une des plus funestes ! Voy. de Jeun. Anach. torn. iii. p. 393. 
 
88 
 
 was a time when God conversed familiarly 
 with man, and that this happiness was enjoyed 
 by the latter in some sacred garden or paradise. 
 The former part of this statement has been 
 allowed universally j the latter part will derive 
 its proof and illustration from what follows, as 
 well as from what has preceded. Of all 
 the various kinds of divination, or modes of 
 attempting to look forward into futurity, oracles 
 have always enjoyed the greatest repute; and 
 the original source of at least very many of 
 these, will be discovered to have been traditions 
 of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It 
 may be thought still more remarkable, that 
 "the devil has always been ambitious to have 
 " the world think that the knowledge of good 
 "and evil was to come by the serpent still ;"* 
 for we shall find him frequently, and indeed 
 almost always, the subtle soul of nearly every 
 oracle we meet with :— as if he reiterated his 
 old temptation to all the sons of Adam, with the 
 same success ; " in the day ye eat thereof, then 
 
 * Bishop Stillingfleet's Orig. Sacrae, lib. iii. cap. 3. sec. 19. 
 The serpent was the symbol of adoration among the heathen, 
 and the proper indicium, or ttote of ft consecrated place, as is 
 evident by that of Persius. 
 
 Pinge duos atigues ; pueri, sacer est locus. 
 
 Ibid: et sequent. 
 
89 
 
 H your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as 
 '< gods, knowing good and evil." Let us now 
 consider and examine the accounts we have 
 of some of the most remarkable oracles of 
 antiquity. 
 
 Dodona is, by some, thought to have been in .-^~ ^ 
 Thessaly, and by others in Epirus ; and some, 
 to reconcile the two opinions, think there were 
 more than one of the same name, which very 
 likely might have been the case. Whether it 
 were so or not, Epirus is generally believed to 
 have been the seat of the oracle of which an 
 account has come down to us ; yet here again 
 it is doubtful whether this was in Thesprotia, 
 in Molossia, or in Chaonia. Eustathius, how- 
 ever, has decided the controversy, by telling us 
 that although it once belonged to the Thespro- 
 tians, it afterwards fell into the hands of the 
 Molossians ; and herein he is confirmed by 
 Strabo.* According to Herodotus, it was the 
 oldest oracle in the world, being prior to the 
 great deluge of Peucalion, who, retreating to 
 this place, was saved, when all Greece beside 
 perished. Its name Dodona, is in fact the real 
 name of the terrestrial paradise, which was 
 memorialised in the oracle before ujs. Eden, 
 
 * Potter's Areh. Grace, lib. ii. cap. 8. p. 206. 
 
( 
 
 90 
 
 as I have already shewn, was sometimes ex- 
 pressed Adon, and this, by a reduplication of 
 the first syllable, by no means unusual, was 
 called Adadon; and more smoothly Dadona or 
 Dodona. We shall find this etymology borne 
 out by the history in every part, and therefore 
 it may be the more depended on. The oracle 
 was delivered from one, or, according to others, 
 from two sacred oaks, which stood in the midst 
 of a vast shady grove of beeches.* It was 
 feigned that this tree of knowledge was endued 
 with a human voice, and that in the earliest 
 ages, mankind wholly lived upon the fruits 
 which grew around it, in the sacred grove or 
 garden of Dodona. However, from some cause 
 or other, it is intimated that " victum Dodona 
 " negaret :" the garden refused to supply any 
 longer the wants of man, and thence he was 
 driven to the pursuits of agriculture and hus- 
 bandry ;f or, in other words, " he was sent forth 
 
 * For further accounts of Dodona, and authorities for what 
 is here advanced, consult Lucan. Phars. vi. 426. Stat. Theb. 
 iii. 475. Georg. ii. 16. Serv. in Virg. Ecc. ix. 13. Cicero. 
 Att. ii. 4. Herodot. ii. 57. Horn. Odyss. xiv. 328. Strabo 
 vii. 329. Id. ix. 402. Plin. Nat. Hist. ii. 103. Pomp. 
 Melaii. 3.71. 
 
 t Natalis Conies, lib. vi. cap. 12. p. 183. Claud, de Rapt 
 Pros. lib. i. 30. p. 703. Val. Flac. Argon, i. Arnob lib. ii. 
 Sidon Carm. ix. Plin, vii. 56. Rhodig. xvi. 3. 
 
91 
 
 " from the garden of Eden to till the ground, 
 " from whence he was taken." The early 
 history of the grove or garden of Dodona is 
 decidedly connected with the golden age, which 
 is altogether made up of traditions of a para- 
 disaic state. There was an obscure idea that 
 here the supreme deity, or at least his offspring, 
 was born ; and the Dodonides were therefore 
 called the nurses of Jove and Bacchus. The 
 whole enclosure was surrounded by the Dry- 
 ades, Fauns, and Satyrs, the usual compounded 
 animal figures representative vestiges of the 
 Cherubim. To these, may be added Centaurs, 
 the literal signification of which term is, "priests 
 "of the Tur," or fire-tower, or Tursis; but, as 
 is well known, their hieroglyphic figure was 
 compounded of a man and an animal. These 
 priests were originally said to have been taught 
 by Pelasgus "to make coats of skins and clothe 
 " themselves ;" also to sleep upon the ground 
 on the skins of the sacrifices which had been 
 offered, and in that posture expect prophetical 
 dreams, which we shall see hereafter was not 
 an unusual mode of obtaining a prophetical 
 answer from many of these oracular paradisi : 
 the custom being derived, no doubt, from the 
 sacrificial rites, in which our first parents were 
 instructed on their expulsion from Eden. The 
 whole country around Dodona had the name 
 
92 
 
 of Ellopia, that is nfw* Ellah the Branch, and 
 Opef the serpent ; ia, or ai, being the general 
 radical denoting a land or country. Moreover, 
 one of the family of Atlas, who was once said 
 to have inhabited the temple of Dodona, was 
 surnamed Pytho ; allusive, at least, to the same 
 serpent which is universally discovered in union 
 with these memorials of the garden of Eden. 
 The oracle, it is affirmed, was first founded in 
 consequence of the following circumstance: — 
 "a golden dove lighted upon the branch of the 
 " oak, and instituted in that place an oracle of 
 "Jupiter." It will be immediately perceived 
 how entirely analogous this account is to that 
 of the doves in the iEneid, which 
 
 liquidumque per aera lapsre 
 Sedibus optatis gemina super arbore sidunt 
 Discolor unde anri per ramos aura refulsit. 
 
 iEneas, by these means, obtained possession 
 of the Aureus Ramus or golden Branch, 
 without which no one could pass from, or enter 
 safely into the paradisaical bliss of Elysium. 
 The poet compares this sacred Branch to the 
 
 * This word very often signifies " a leaf," and occurs in 
 that sense frequently throughout the scriptures ; but it also 
 may be rendered the " Branch of a tree," such as those lit 
 to make booths or bowers. See Nehem. viii. 15. Anc. 
 Univ. Hist. vol. i. p. 130. 
 
 f See Bry. Anal, for this and the following radicals. 
 
misletoe, which gives us an opportunity of 
 enlarging a little on the religious adoration paid 
 the oak, not only at Dodona in Greece, but 
 also by the Druids in Gaul, and in our own 
 country. This will, if I mistake not, confirm 
 us in the opinion already advanced, that the 
 whole system derives its origin from traditionary 
 memorials of the symbolic trees which grew " in 
 " the midst of Eden," however obscured and con- 
 founded together we may frequently find them. 
 The holy scriptures often mention idolaters 
 as sacrificing or serving their false gods " under 
 <c every green tree," as the reader may perceive 
 more fully, on consulting the passages referred to 
 below.* This was more especially the case where 
 the tree was found in conjunction with a foun- 
 tain, which was the addition of another feature of 
 paradise. We have a scene of this sort in Homer, 
 and numberless others might be adduced : — 
 
 H/i£i£ # ajj<f>L tfepi Kprjvrjy, upovQ Kara /3w/iov£, 
 
 Ep£o/z£»> adavarouri reXTjeacras eKarofifiag, 
 
 KaXrjt viro IIAATANISTili, oOev peer ayXaov vdu>p.f 
 
 Beside a fountain's sacred brink we rais'd 
 
 Our verdant altars, and the victims blaz'd ; 
 
 The fountain sprang from where a plane tree spread 
 
 Fair to the sight, her ever beauteous head. 
 
 * Deut. xii. 2. Isaiah Ivii. 5. 1 Kings xiv. 23. 2 Kings 
 xvi. 4. xvii. 10. Jerem. ii. 20. iii. 6. and 13. 
 
 f Here, also, we meet with the usual traces of the serpent 
 and oracle. See the whole passage. Iliad ii. 308 et seq. 
 
s 
 
 94 
 
 However, more generally, though not always, 
 the consecrated tree was a palm or olive among 
 eastern nations, while the oak prevailed amongst 
 the Gauls and Celt*. Maximus Tyrius* calls 
 it "the Celtic image of deity." Also, in some 
 instances in Syria and Greece, it was the object 
 at least of great veneration, as we have seen in 
 the cases of Beershebah, Sichem,f and now 
 of Dodona. Amongst the Romans we have 
 " sacra Jovi quercus," almost to a proverb. 
 But in Gaul and Britain it was, that the highest 
 religious regard was paid to the oak and its 
 misletoe, under the direction of the Druids. 
 Few persons are ignorant that the misletoe is 
 indeed a very extraordinary plant, not to be 
 cultivated in the earth, but always growing upon 
 some other tree. " The Druids," says Pliny,f 
 " hold nothing more sacred than the misletoe, 
 " and the tree on which it is produced, pro- 
 " vided it be the oak. They make choice of 
 " groves of oaks on their own account, nor do 
 " they perform any of their sacred rites without 
 " the leaves of those trees, so that one may 
 " suppose that they are for this reason called 
 " by a Greek etymology, Druids. And what- 
 " ever misletoe grows on the oak, they think is 
 
 * Dissert, xxxviii. p. 400. See also xxv. 254. xxvi. 2G4. 
 Ovid. Metam. viii. 
 
 t See also Isaiah i. 29. J Nat. Hist. xvii. 44. 
 
95 
 
 " sent from heaven, and is a sign that God 
 " himself has chosen that tree. This, however, 
 " is very rarely found, but when discovered, is 
 " treated with very great ceremony. They call 
 " it by a name which, in their language, signifies 
 " the curer of all ills; and having duly prepared 
 " their feasts and sacrifices under the tree, they 
 " bring to it two white bulls, whose horns are 
 " then, for the first time, tied. The priest, 
 " drest in a white robe, ascends the tree, and 
 " with a golden pruning- hook cuts off the 
 " misletoe, which is received in a white sagum 
 " or sheet. Then they sacrifice the victims, 
 " praying that God would bless his own gift, 
 " to those on whom he has bestowed it." One 
 would deem it hardly possible for a Christian 
 to read this account without thinking of Him, 
 who was the desire of all nations ; of the Man 
 whose name was the Branch, who had indeed 
 no father upon earth, but came down from heaven, 
 was given to heal all our ills, and after being 
 cut off through the divine counsel, was wrapt 
 in fine linen, and laid in the sepulchre for our 
 sakes. These last reflections are those of our 
 late eminent Hebrew Lexicographer. 
 
 I shall here anticipate a circumstance, as it 
 is more convenient to my purpose; though 
 strictly speaking, its proper place comes in 
 
96 
 
 afterwards. One of the very remarkable 
 Hebrew names for the oak, is Vum Asel ; and 
 from this word may be derived Asylum,* such 
 a place of refuge as that opened by Romulus 
 " between two groves of oaks" at Rome. Hither 
 all who were guilty of any crime, fled for pro- 
 tection and found it. After Romulus enlarged 
 his new city, this Asylum, which was on the 
 hill Capitolinus, became enclosed within the 
 walls, and those who had fled for refuge thither 
 were made citizens of Rome. Servius Tullus 
 seems to have ordained, afterwards, that there 
 should be at least one of these places of refuge 
 in each tribe; and doubtless, like that at Rome, 
 they were between two groves of oaks, or more 
 often perhaps "between two single trees in the 
 "midst of an enclosure," as there is every 
 reason to believe. Now this is evidently derived 
 from the original garden of Eden, and accord- 
 ingly we find all the paradisi of the ancient 
 
 * One may here observe, that Asylum, by a slight 
 alteration of its radicals, is the same as Elysium, which 
 the more decidedly connects it with paradise. The learned 
 Bochart supposes the latter to be derived from rvwhv Elizuth, 
 the Hebrew word for " great joy or exultation ;*' which the 
 Greeks, adapting to their own mode of pronunciation, called 
 Elysium. Dionyss. Hal. lib. ii. 15 ; where the Asylum of 
 Romulus is mentioned fiedopwv dvotv dpvfjiwv. 
 
97 
 
 heathen to have been Asyla. The custom 
 appears to present a traditionary memorial of 
 the conduct of our first parents after their fall 
 in Eden. " And they heard the voice of the 
 " Lord God walking in the garden in the cool 
 " of the day ; and Adam and his wife hid 
 " themselves from the presence of the Lord 
 " God, in the midst qj the tree of the garden;" 
 for so the words should be rendered. They in 
 fact fled as criminals for refuge to the midst of 
 the two sacramental trees of paradise, and 
 strove to hide themselves between them, as 
 their Asylum from the justice of Jehovah. 
 Often the heathen Asyla were only a single 
 tree in the midst of the enclosure, consecrated 
 to religion: — such was that to which Priam 
 fled ;— * 
 
 CEdibus in mediis, nudoque sub aetheris axe 
 Ingens ara fuit ; juxtaque veterrima Laurus 
 Incumbens arae, atque umbra complexa penates. 
 
 There was an asylum of the same kind at 
 Beneventum in Italy, where the object of wor- 
 ship was a sacred tree in the midst of a garden, 
 on which a golden viper or other serpent was 
 suspended, together with the skin of a beast 
 
 * iEneid ii. 512. 
 
98 
 
 which had probably been offered by way of 
 expiatory sacrifice: and it is remarkable that 
 this idolatry continued among the pagan popu- 
 lation of that country even down to the seventh 
 century. But to return to the oracles, and 
 more particularly that at Delphi. 
 
 It was one of those which enjoyed the 
 greatest reputation ; and was, by some, thought 
 to equal in antiquity the grove of Dodona. It 
 was situated at the foot of Mount Parnassus, 
 and near the Castalian fountain, with awful 
 precipices on three sides of it. In the midst 
 of the sacred enclosure grew a lofty laurel, 
 under which the Pythia delivered her prophetic 
 answers, seated upon a Tripos, while the tree 
 nodded over her head. Before speaking, she 
 gathered the fruit or devoured the leaves, while 
 waiting for the inspiration, which affected her 
 whole frame in such a manner as to make her 
 foam at the mouth, tear her hair, and utter the 
 most distracting cries. The Tripos is worthy 
 of notice; the same was not always used, but 
 the one most famous was made of brass, wrought 
 by Vulcan himself, and presented to Apollo 
 by Pelops when he married Hippodamia.* It 
 
 * Pott. Arch. Graec. lib. ii. cap. 9. 276. Nat. Com. lib. v. 
 2. pp. 133 and 183. 
 
99 
 
 was adorned with the heads of different animals, 
 and altogether may be considered as a distorted 
 representation of the Cherubim, derived by 
 tradition from the antediluvian heathen, pro- 
 bably through means of Ham and his posterity. 
 Homer has preserved for us a fuller description 
 of Vulcan at work upon these Tripods, as well 
 as of the machines themselves ; — 
 
 Ecrrayufvai xept roiyov tvaradeot; peyapoio 
 Xpvaea £e <r<f vtto kvk\cl ekchttu) xvOfjievi drjicev, 
 Otypa ol avrofiaroi Oeiov Svcraiat' aywva 
 Hc^ avTiS TfpOQ £w/xa vf.oia.TO Qavjia tcecdat.* 
 The Tripods, placed in living wheels of gold, 
 Wondrous to tell, instinct with spirit roll'd 
 From place to place around the blest abodes, 
 Sfclf-raov'd, obedient to the beck of gods. 
 
 The reader may remark considerable simi- 
 larity, in this description, to what Ezekiel has 
 related by inspiration in his vision of the Che- 
 rubim. — "The spirit of the living creatures was 
 " in the wheels ; when those went, these went ; 
 " and when those stood, these stood; and when I 
 " those were lifted up, the wheels were lifted 
 " up over against them, for the spirit of the 
 
 " living creatures was in the wheels :" and it is 
 
 ♦ 
 
 * Iliad 2. 375 
 H 
 
100 
 
 added afterwards ; "I knew they were the 
 " Cherubim/'* Homer mentions that the Tri- 
 pods had Ova™, or handles, which might have 
 been wings, such as are seen upon some ancient 
 Tripods yet in existence. The whole was said 
 to have been covered with the skin of the serpent 
 Python, who was there overcome and slain by 
 Apollo. From this name of the former, the 
 place in which the oracles were delivered was 
 termed Pythium, and the priestess who uttered 
 them was called the Pythia, or Pythonissa. 
 Before she ascended the Tripos, she washed 
 her whole body in the fountain of Castalia, or 
 Castalis ; while underneath her,* as she sat, 
 there often appeared a serpent, which supplied 
 her with the answers, and on one occasion is 
 reported to have destroyed her; a tradition 
 perhaps of the fatal effects of his temptation on 
 the first woman. Eusebiusf reports " SpaKovTa 
 " eiXeiadai nepi f TpnroSa that a serpent rolled itself 
 " around the Tripod." In fact the signification 
 of the term Tripos, or Tur-ops, is " the tower 
 " or temple of the serpent." 
 
 Whoever went to consult the oracle, previ- 
 ously offered sacrifices to Apollo; and the 
 
 * Ezekiel i. 15—20. 
 
 t Cited by Potter in the Arch. Graec. vol. i. lib. 2. cap. 9. 
 
101 
 
 priests who assisted on these occasions were in 
 number five, all of whom were called " Oawt the 
 " holy ones," and these were supposed to be 
 descendants of Deucalion, the Noah of Greece.* 
 There was one who presided over these, called 
 " Offib)rr)p the purifier ;" answering in signification 
 at least to the nnn Berith of Shechem, mentioned 
 in an early part of this dissertation. No impure 
 person was admitted to any part of the; solemn 
 rites, and all persons, in any manner engaged 
 about the oracle, were frequently obliged to 
 purify themselves by lustration and sacrifice. 
 The answers of the serpent, both at Delphi and 
 Dodona, (for his they most frequently were,) 
 seem to have been as ambiguous as his primeval 
 delusion offered to the great parents of all man- 
 kind, in Eden. The mixture of truth, it appears, \ 
 was combined with sufficient fraud and error, 
 generally speaking, to expose the source from 
 whence they came, namely, the father of lies, 
 " more subtle than any beast of the field, which 
 " the Lord God had made." 
 
 They had a remarkable tradition of the ^ 
 sabbath at Delphi. For we are told that in 
 the temple of Apollo, every seventh day was 
 
 * Nwe oq KEKXrjTat vwo tviwv AevfcaXiwv. Theoph. ad 
 Autol. lib. ii. p. 106. lib. iii. 129. Philo. Jud. de pr. et pa>n 
 vol. ii. p. 370. Justin Martyr, i. Apolog. pro Christ, p. 45. 
 
102 
 
 a solemn festival, on which the priestesses 
 chaunted paeans in honour of the serpent.* 
 These priestesses are said to have been the 
 daughters of Triopus; or, in other words, the 
 persons who attended upon the Tur-ops or 
 
 * Prol. in C-arm. Pyth. Pind. Philo says that the^gat>- 
 bath is a festival common to the whole world. Josephus, in 
 his second book against Appion, declares that not a city or 
 .nation yvns ever known to exist, wherein some trace of the 
 institution of the seventh day was not discernible. Aristo- 
 frilus, cited by Eusebius, Prep. Evang. xiii. 12. quotes 
 Homer and Hesiod, speaking of this seventh day, as emi- 
 nently sacred and venerable. Clemens Alexandrinus Strom, 
 v. cites similar passages from the ancients, and to the same 
 purport. Seven, of old, was always looked upon as a sacred 
 and mysterious number ; see a curious fragment of Linus cited 
 by Bryant, and others : — 
 
 JLfiSojJLr) eiv ayaSoig, kcil eficofir) £<m yevedXr) 
 'Ejjcofirf tv 7rp(s)TOL(Ti t Kcu efidofir] ecttl reXeiri 
 JLfiSofia.Tr) Srj 0L rereXecrfieva itavra rtrvKTai : 
 E7rra ce -Travra rerv/crat ev ovpavcj aarepoevTi. 
 
 Fragm. Lini. Poes. Philos. Steph. p. 112. 
 
 The arbitrary, but generally prevailing division of time into 
 weeks, in contradistinction to the natural periods of a month, 
 and a year, has been ably touched upon by several writers, as 
 affording good proof of the authenticity of the account given 
 by Moses of the institution of the sabbath. See further 
 Gael. Rhodig. Lect. Ant. xxii. 12. Ptolem. Hephaest. Nov. 
 Hist. lib. vii. Also Grotius de Ver. Rel. Chr. i. 1G. Cooke's 
 Inq. Pat. and Druid. Rel. pp. 4 and 5. Leland's Advantage 
 . and Necessity of Chr, Rev. p. 74. 
 
103 
 
 Pythian temple ; for the deity was very often 
 esteemed the father of those who served at his 
 altar. The sacred enclosure at Delphi was 
 also considered as "the place of judgment;" 
 where the great council of the Amphictyons 
 met once a year. The same feature is disco- 
 verable in all places of paradisaical memorial : 
 they are nearly all connected in some way or 
 other with a tribunal of justice, which is espe- 
 cially the case in the Hades or future world of 
 antiquity. My idea is, that this singular coin- 
 cidence arose out of traditions of that first 
 tribunal in paradise when Adam, Eve, and the 
 serpent were arraigned before that same Divine 
 Being, who shall hereafter judge f* both quick 
 " and dead." Probably a better opportunity 
 will offer itself presently for our going more 
 fully into this part of the subject. 
 
 There was another famous oracle of Apollo 
 at Tegyra, which was much frequented until 
 the Persian war; but after that time it remained 
 for ever silent. The temple had a sacred 
 enclosure behind it, and was situated very near 
 a mountain called Delos, at the foot of which 
 was the river Mela, which lost itself in some 
 neighbouring marshes. Here were also found 
 the same traditions of the victory of Apollo (the 
 son of the Supreme Being, and himself a deity* 
 
104 
 
 bern into the world for the good of man) over 
 the serpent Python. Moreover, the god was 
 said to have been born here, "between two 
 " fountains, one of which was called The Palm, 
 "and the other The Olive;" and these names 
 were retained even in the days of Plutarch.* 
 Now the Palm was the pagan symbol of the 
 Tree of Life, and as such, often received idol- 
 atrous worship amongst the ancients ; the Olive 
 was also their memorial of the Tree of Know- 
 ledge, being considered as the insigne of 
 Minerva the goddess of wisdom, and of Athens 
 the seat of learning. These two fountains will 
 be discovered in most of the paradisi of the 
 ancients. They existed in the grove of Dodona, 
 and were remarkable for peculiar and uncom- 
 mon properties, which always invested them, 
 wherever found, with singular sanctity. The 
 same may be said of the two fountains in the 
 
 * ~EvravOa fivdoXoyovai top 0EON yEpeadat. — Oiriaia Se rtt 
 van dvo prjyvvvTat Trrjyai, yXvKvrrjTi teat ttXtjOei kcu ^vxpoTrjTi 
 Oavfiaffra vafxarog, top to fiev $OINIKA, to $e EAAIAN a^pi 
 vvv ovofiaZofiev, ov Qvtwp /jletoc^v (Hveip, aXXa peidpuv, ttjc Oeov 
 Xox^vG^crr)Q, The whole account is very curious. Plut. de 
 Vit. Pelopid. Keiske Ed. vol. ii. pp. 356, 357. Plut. de 
 Defect. Orac. vol. i. p. 733. Steph. 1572. On the Ephesian, 
 and some other Grecian medals, Diana, or her reputed 
 brother Apollo, is represented as standing between two trees. 
 See Imp. Rom. Num. Pat. passim. 
 

 105 
 
 midst of the sacred enclosure at Gades ; also of 
 those in the gardens of Alcinous ; in the temple 
 and grove of Jupiter Hammon, and many 
 others. The tradition, however, of the sacra- 
 mental trees in the centre of Eden, it must be 
 allowed, was uncommonly clear at Tegyra in 
 the instance before us. With regard to the 
 immediate birth of the Son of the Deity in this 
 or that sacred garden, (for we shall frequently 
 have occasion to notice this feature of the tradi- 
 tion) it must be supposed to have arisen from 
 the great promise " of the future seed of the 
 " woman who was to bruise the serpent's 
 " head," having been first promulgated in the 
 primeval paradise or garden of Eden, and 
 therefore for ever afterwards was connected 
 with it, even amidst all the distortions of the 
 heathen memorials of the scene of the fall. 
 The same kinds of sacrifices were probably 
 offered here, as at the oracle of Apollo at 
 Larissa; where a woman, doomed to perpetual 
 virginity, delivered the answers, after slaying 
 a firstling lamb in the night, and then tasting of 
 the blood of the victim.* 
 
 Let us turn to another oracle, no less famous 
 than those which have preceded ; that of Jupiter 
 
 * See Pausanias in Corintkiac. 
 
106 
 
 Hammon. The description given by Quintus 
 Curtius* of its sacred grove, is singularly beau- 
 tiful ; and like many other of the heathen memo- 
 
 i 
 
 rials of paradise, presents to our imagination 
 the deep shades and chrystal streams of Eden. 
 " At length," says he, " they arrived at the 
 41 consecrated habitation of the deity, which, 
 " incredible as it may seem, was situated in the 
 " midst of a vast sandy desert, a«a shaded 
 " from the sun by so luxurious a vegetation, 
 " that its beams could scarcely penetrate 
 " through the thickness of the foliage. The 
 " groves are watered by meandering streams of 
 " numerous fountains ; and a wonderful tempe- 
 " rature of climate, resembling most of all the 
 " delightful season of spring, prevails through 
 " the whole year, with an equal degree of salu- 
 " brity." In the heart of this delicious Oasis, 
 or island of the desert, there seems to have 
 been another grove, which was probably the 
 sacred enclosure, connected with the oracle. 
 The whole was surrounded with a triple wall, 
 and the latter grove, with its central fountain, 
 is described as follows : — " Est etiam aliud 
 " Ammonis nemus. In medio habet fontem : 
 " aquam solis vocant." This remarkable spring 
 
 * Quint. Cur. lib. iv. 7. 
 
107 ^ 
 
 " at sunrise was tepid; at middle-day, when 
 " the sun was in his zenith, it was cold ; and, 
 " as evening came on, grew warm ; until at 
 " midnight it boiled ;" and on the returning 
 day again became cold in the manner described. 
 It was called the " water of the sun," as this 
 historian tells us; and Macrobius # says that 
 Adonis was undoubtedly the name of the sun, 
 so that the fountain in the midst of this sacred 
 grove was in fact "the water of Adonis," the 
 same as the Eridanus of Elysium, or memorial 
 in other words of the river of Eden. The 
 image of the idol deity, which the priests wor- 
 shipped, was a compound figure of the human 
 form and an animal. This was adorned with 
 the richest jewels, and more especially the 
 emerald. They had also an obscure tradition, 
 that Jupiter, once upon a time, at the request 
 of Hercules, who wished to see him, slew or 
 sacrificed a ram, and appeared to the hero 
 "clothed in its skin;" upon which the oracle 
 was established, and the deity worshipped 
 under that form. 
 
 The next oracle whose history we are to 
 examine, shall be that of Trophonius.f The 
 
 * Macrob. Saturn, lib. i. 21. p. 254. 
 
 t Potter's Arch. Graec. lib. ii. cap. 10. p. 289. 
 
108 
 
 founder of this, with his friend or brother 
 Agamedes, having erected Apollo's temple at 
 Delphi, requested that he would give them as 
 a recompense for their labour, the best thing 
 which could happen to man; which the god 
 promised they should have on the third day 
 after, when they were found dead. Thus, for 
 preparing the sacred enclosure at the foot of 
 Parnassus, and for planting the oracular laurel, 
 or tree of knowledge, in the midst, death was 
 considered to have been their reward. Tro- 
 phonius was worshipped as a god ever after, by 
 the name of Jupiter Trophonius. The situation 
 of this oracle was subterranean, and altogether 
 bore a striking analogy to the Hades of the 
 ancients, which will excite no wonder, as both 
 were derived from the same traditionary source. 
 Whoever was inclined to consult the oraele, 
 was obliged, before his descent, as it was 
 termed, to employ some time " in making an 
 " atonement for past transgressions ; to wash in 
 " the sacred river ;" and live only upon the 
 sacrifices which were offered up on his behalf. 
 If all the omens were at length satisfactory, the 
 priests conducted the person, at dead of night, 
 once more to the sacred river, there washed 
 him again, then anointed him with oil, and 
 brought him to two fountains, one of Oblivion, 
 
109 
 
 called Lethe; the other of Remembrance, 
 termed " the water of Mnemosyne." By drink- 
 ing of the former, the world, and all that con- 
 cerned it, was to be forgotten; and by partaking 
 of the latter, a recollection was to be retained 
 of whatever was exhibited to the consultant in 
 his passage through the cavern, for such it really 
 was. They then shewed him a wonderful 
 statue of exquisite workmanship, said to have 
 been formed by Daedalus, to which obeisance 
 was made, and a prayer offered. This was, 
 very probably, the memorial of an obscure tra- 
 dition of the creation of the first man, the father 
 of the whole human race. Not far off was the 
 oracle, in a consecrated grove, which was con- 
 sulted in so extraordinary a manner as to 
 deprive the person for a time of his senses. It 
 was here that Plutarch tells us, a young man 
 named Timarchus, had a view afforded him of 
 the "Fortunate Islands," which, as will be 
 seen in the sequel, were certainly paradisaical. 
 These appeared floating in an azure lake or sea, 
 reflecting various colours, and surrounded with 
 a glittering flame. This lake, however, had 
 two mouths, which were the inlets to boisterous 
 rivers, " which cast out fiery foam, the bright- 
 " ness of which covered the greatest part of the 
 " natural azure of the lake. Below, was an 
 
110 
 
 " immense hiatus, or chasm, resembling a hol- 
 " lowed sphere of an awful depth, and filled with 
 " utter darkness even to a miracle : all around 
 " were heard the howlings of wild beasts, with 
 " the cries of men and women." The whole, 
 in fact, was a view of those ideas, embodied, 
 which the heathen had of Hades and that 
 future world, which they identified with the 
 paradise of happiness and innocence which tra- 
 dition told them had once been the lot of man, 
 till he lost it through his own folly and trans- 
 gression; — upon which, death, judgment, and 
 misery followed. 
 
 It can hardly have escaped the observation 
 of an attentive reader, that, connected with 
 these memorials of paradise, there is very 
 frequently discovered an island in the middle of 
 an adjacent lake. This was the case in more 
 than one instance on the coast of Spain, and 
 will hereafter be perceived in many others. 
 The Hades of Campania is not without this 
 feature : 
 
 palus inamabilis unda 
 Adligat, et novies Styx interfusa coercet.* 
 
 Sometimes the situation of the paradisos 
 itself was considered as altogether insular, and 
 
 * ^neid vi. 438. 
 
Ill 
 
 hence arose the beautiful descriptions of " the 
 "Islands of the Blessed," whither the souls of 
 the virtuous were supposed to be conveyed at 
 death, and where they enjoyed perfect felicity. 
 These were in fact the same kind of memorials 
 as the Elysian fields of Egypt and Italy. But 
 whence, it will be asked, did such representa- 
 tions of paradise arise ? The answer is simply 
 this ; from a mixture of those traditions which 
 related both to the garden of Eden, and the 
 deluge. The family of Noah presents the only 
 channel through which any account of the ante- 
 diluvian world could be handed down to the 
 heathen ; and hence, when they came to be 
 worshipped by their idolatrous descendants 
 under the titles of the Baalim, the traditions of 
 paradise and the Cherubim became incorporated 
 with those scenical representations, which mys- 
 teriously memorialized the preservation of the 
 patriarch and his children from the waters of 
 the flood. The island, therefore, alluded to 
 the ark of Noah, for we shall generally find that 
 it was once thought to have floated, a circum- 
 stance aptly representing the erratic state of the 
 ark upon the surface of the great deep; and 
 the lake served as a typical hieroglyphic of the 
 deluge itself : but then the sacred garden, with 
 its central symbols, representing the Trees of 
 
> 
 
 112 
 
 Life and of Knowledge ; the consecrated tower, 
 temple, or tabernacle, with its defence of fire, 
 and the compound animal figures connected 
 with it, cannot be mistaken; for these were 
 memorials of a history far prior to the diluvian 
 period, and nearly coeval with the creation of 
 the world. Nevertheless, as the circumstances 
 of this history were derived to the postdiluvians 
 by those who had been saved in the ark, it is 
 obvious that their veneration for the family of 
 Noah confounded the whole together, as if all 
 related to one period of time, or one and the 
 same great event. With some care and atten- 
 tion, however, it is not difficult for the student 
 of mythology to distinguish between what 
 belongs more particularly to the deluge, and 
 what more especially memorialized the cele- 
 brated garden of Eden. It may here also be 
 further remarked that all these scenes of para- 
 disaical memorials were intimately connected 
 with traditions of a victory over the serpent, 
 achieved by the son of the deity, who is, more- 
 over, often supposed to have been actually born 
 either in the sacred garden, or consecrated 
 island; and this must certainly have arisen 
 from the handing down through successive 
 generations, of the primeval promise delivered 
 in the paradise of Eden, ' ' that the seed of 
 
113 
 
 "■the woman was to bruise the head of the 
 " serpent." 
 
 We shall find all this remarkably exempli- 
 fied in the instance of the Isle of Delos, the 
 most celebrated of the Cyclades. It was 
 looked upon as the birth-place of Apollo, and 
 considered altogether so sacred and inviolable, 
 that the Persians, who pillaged and destroyed 
 nearly all the other temples which fell in their 
 way when they descended upon Greece, yet 
 nevertheless attempted nothing against Delos. 
 It was unlawful for any person either to die or 
 be born in this island ; and whoever had any 
 mortal disease, as well as all pregnant women, J 
 were carried away to a little adjacent isle called 
 Rhena. No dog or other impure animal was 
 ever permitted to enter, and all manner of pol- 
 lution was most carefully avoided. The island 
 of Delos was once thought to have floated, 
 and within its limits was a sacred lake, of a 
 circular form, and supposed to be the resort of 
 swans, famous for their song. Apollo, in due 
 time, was born here, under a celebrated palm 
 tree, which received religious veneration, and 
 was esteemed, even in the times of Tully, 
 immortal; or, in other words, "the Tree of 
 Life :" in short, any person supereminently beau- 
 tiful, was compared to. it amongst the hea- 
 
114 
 
 then,* and from the scriptures it is plain that the 
 Hebrew term for the palm was conferred on 
 women remarkable for their rank or personal 
 attractions. f This wonderful tree Mas in the 
 centre of a sacred enclosure, which probably, in 
 after times, might have become the inner court of 
 the temple of Apollo. At the foot of the palm 
 was a fountain, which supplied a small river, 
 called the Inopus, or " the fountain of the ser- 
 " pent;" an image of which animal was preserved 
 in the temple, where was also an oracle famous for 
 the answers it gave, which were without ambi- 
 guity or obscurity. Traditions of the mythic 
 victory of Apollo the iWrjp, r Saviour, over the 
 serpent, appear almost inseparably connected 
 with every oracle dedicated to this deity. Not 
 only was this the case at Delos, Delphi, and 
 Cirrha, but also at Orope and Orobce, cities of 
 Eubcea, both which, together with another ora- 
 cle of Apollo at Hybla, derive their names from 
 the serpent worship.;}; 
 
 * Odyss. vi. 162. Theocrit. Idyl, xviii. 30. Pausan. lib. 
 viii. 23. Theophr. Hist. Plant, iv. 14. Plin. xvi. 44. Call. 
 Hymn in Del. v. 208. Cicer. de Legib. i. 3. 
 
 t Psalm xcii. 12. Jerem. x. 5. Cant. vii. 7. 2 Sam. 
 xiii. 1. Gen. xxxviii. 6. 
 
 X For further accounts respecting the sacred Isle of Delos, 
 see Voyage de Jeune Anach. torn. vi. 76. pp. 352, 372. 
 
115 
 
 Another remarkable instance, in which dilu- 
 vian and paradisaical traditions were intermin- 
 gled, we have in the account given by Hero- 
 dotus of the famous Egyptian oracle.* "It is 
 " sacred/' says he, " to Latona, and situated in 
 " a large city, called Butos, at the Sebennitic 
 " mouth of the Nile, as approached from the 
 " sea. In this city stands a temple of Apollo 
 " and Diana ; that of Latona, whence the 
 " oracular communications are made, is very 
 " magnificent, having porticos forty cubits high. 
 " What most excited my admiration was the 
 " shrine of the goddess : it was of one solid 
 " stone, having equal sides; the length of each 
 " was forty cubits ; the roof is of another solid 
 " stone, no less than four cubits in thickness. 
 " Of all the things which here excite attention, 
 " this shrine is, in my opinion, the most to be 
 " admired. Next to this is the island of Chem- 
 " mis, which is near the temple at Butos, and 
 "stands in a deep and spacious lake; the 
 " Egyptians affirm it to be a floating island; I 
 " did not witness the fact, and was astonished 
 " to hear that such a thing existed. In this 
 " island is a large edifice sacred to Apollo, 
 " having three altars, and surrounded by palm 
 
 Euterp. cap. 15C. 
 
 I 
 
116 
 
 " trees, the natural produce of the soil. There 
 " are also great varieties of other trees, some of 
 " which produce fruit, and others are barren. 
 " The Egyptians thus explain the circumstance 
 " of this island's floating : It was once fixed 
 " and immoveable, when Latona, who has been 
 " ever esteemed one of the eight primary divi- 
 " nitiesy dwelt at Butos. Having received 
 " Apollo in trust from Isis, she concealed and 
 " preserved him in this island, which, according 
 "to their account, now floats; this happened 
 " when Typhon, earnestly endeavouring to dis- 
 " cover the son of Osiris, came hither." 
 
 Now the name of . this sacred island is 
 undoubtedly to be derived from Cham, the 
 father of postdiluvian idolatry ; for Chemmis is 
 a compound of on Cham, and urn Is, the 
 Hebrew title for fire ; and to the adoration of 
 the sacred fire, the island and temple were in 
 one sense dedicated. The circumstance of its 
 floating, like Delos, and other consecrated 
 places of the same nature, represented the 
 wanderings of the ark over the waters of the 
 deluge ; and as in that machine, the " eight 
 " primary divinities" of Egypt and the heathen 
 world, who were in fact none other than the 
 Noetic family, were preserved ; the idea thence 
 arose, that they " dwelt at Butos," which is one 
 
117 
 
 of the titles of the ark itself.* Thus far the 
 tradition is manifestly diluvian ; but here, how- 
 ever, we find that Apollo, the intercessor, and ^* 
 destroyer of the serpent, was thought to have * — 
 been concealed, and his altars were surrounded 
 by palm trees, the emblems of life and immor- 
 tality. The other trees, "some fruitful and 
 "some barren," shew that the whole was, in fact, 
 a floating paradisos, one of those, enclosures 
 which exhibited memorials of Eden, and derived 
 its origin from the most ancient traditions 
 handed down by Cham to so many branches of 
 his posterity. The monster Typhonf may / 
 either allude to the deluge, which caused the ) 
 ark to float ; or, it may, w ith a slight variation 
 of its elemental characters, as has been before 
 mentioned, mean the Python or serpent which 
 Apollo overcame. Most probably, the allusion 
 is to both these traditions blended together. 
 
 We may forther observe the striking simi- / 
 larity that appears between the Egyptian oracle 
 described by Herodotus, and that of Gades 
 mentioned by Philostratus. The BuJtps of the I 
 one, and the Bcetis of the other, are doubtless / 
 the same title, being a name derived from the > 
 
 * Bryant. Anal. Anc. Myth. vol. iii. p. 73. . 
 
 t The Arabs, at this day, express the general deluge by Zi+ $- 
 the term Al-Tufan^Univ. Anc. Hist. vol. i. p. 200. 
 
 
118 
 
 ark, (or the sacred heifer, which typified that 
 machine,) and which was called Butos, Bcetis, 
 or sometimes Budo, or Buddha. The temple 
 and island at Gades, dedicated to Hercules, 
 were of the same kind as those consecrated to 
 . Apollo in Egypt. The two deities are also one 
 and the same, while their mythological history 
 is precisely analogous. In both shrines the 
 identical number of altars were consecrated 
 with trees around them, palms and others, as 
 was the case in all places of this nature. The 
 Typhon or Python, moreover, of the latter, 
 answers to the monster Geryon of the former; 
 so that it is manifest that the whole worship 
 had but one original source, although, by the 
 emigration of mankind, it found its way to 
 places the most distant and wide of each 
 other. 
 
 There was another of these diluvio-paradi- 
 saical islands in the midst of a sacred lake of 
 great depth, at Cotyle, in Italy, to which the 
 nation of the Pelasgi* were directed by an 
 
 * Dionys. Halicarn. Ant. lib. i. cap. 2. p. 12. The histo- 
 rian mentions a very remarkable and ancient oracle as having 
 existed in these parts, "like that at Dodona," but sacred to 
 Mars. It was, in fact, a grove of trees, with an oracular 
 symbol "in the midst," and not far off, the usual floating 
 \fcAfc** island. See also cap. xiv. for the account of Cotyle. 
 
119 
 
 oracle. It is mentioned by Varro and Pliny, 
 and fully described both by Dionysius of Hali- 
 camassus, and Macrobius.f The last writer 
 tells us as follows : " Pelasgi sicut Varro memo- 
 "rat, cum sedibus suis pulsi diversas terras 
 " petissent, confluxerunt plerique Dodonam, et 
 " incerti quibus hoererent locis, ejusmodi acce- 
 "pere responsum, 
 
 Etel-^ete fiaLOfj-EVOL HaeXwv Sarupvtav aiav 
 H(T AfiopiyEVEMV KoTvkrjv u vaaog o-^ELTai 
 Aig avafiiyBEVTEQ ^EKar-qv EKTTE^arE <£ot/3<«;, 
 Kcu KE(f>a\ag AAH, Kai rw Trarpi ttejxttete tpiora. 
 
 "acceptaque sorte, cum Latium post errores 
 " plurimos appulsissent, in lacu Cutuliensi ena- 
 "tam insulam deprehenderunt. Amplissimus 
 "enim cespes sive ille continens limus seu 
 " paludis fuit coacta compage, virgultis et arbo- 
 "ribus in silvae licentiam comptus jactantibus 
 "per amnem fluctibus vagabatur; ut fides ex 
 " hoc etiam Delo facta sit, quae celsa montibus, 
 " vasta campis, tamen per maria ambulabat." 
 The Pelasgi, accordingly, when they had seized 
 the country, dedicated a tenth of the spoil to 
 Apollo, and instituted at the same time human 
 
 * Mac Saturn, lib. i. cap. 7. p. 187. Plin. Nat. Hist, 
 lib. Hi. 12. 
 
120 
 
 sacrifices,* both to Saturn, and Pluto or Hades. 
 This last rite is decidedly derived from paradi- 
 saical tradition, as will be shewn in the sequel. 
 The island which floated 5 in the lake of Cotyle 
 was esteemed the navel of Italy; and the 
 heathen writers give the same designation to 
 various other oracles. The idea seems to have 
 originated from a misconception of the sacred 
 term Om-phi-al, " the oracle of the god Ham," 
 which, in process of time, came to be perverted 
 by the Greeks into Omphalos, and by the Latins 
 into Umbilicus.! 
 
 * It is said, that they were persuaded, afterwards, by 
 Hercules, to discontinue these, and offer sacrifices without 
 shedding of blood ; the same account is mentioned as to a 
 famous altar in the paradisaical island of Delos, and we 
 know it was also the custom among the disciples of Pytha- 
 goras, who, with some others, may perhaps be termed 
 " heathen deists," inasmuch as they rejected the idea of a 
 propitiatory atonement (indistinct as that idea often was,) 
 which tradition afforded them. 
 
 f Bryant. Omp. vol. i. pp. 291, 307. Anal. Anc. Myth. 
 Thus Delphi, the grove of Jupiter Ammon, Enna, the island 
 of Calypso, and many places of a similar nature, had all of 
 them the title of Omphalos, or Umbilicus, and were absurdly 
 supposed by the poets to be the centre of the earth, as the 
 navel, they thought, was in the midst of the human body. To 
 the multitude of authorities cited by Bryant, may be added 
 some mountains in Germany, which appear to have been an 
 Omphalian region. See Epist. Marc. Aur. Imp. apud Justin 
 Martyr, p. 102. 
 
121 
 
 To the sacred islands already mentioned, 
 may be added those of Rhodes and Anaphe,* 
 which were both once looked upon as having 
 floated; and the latter of which, more espe- 
 cially, presents us with similar memorials. At 
 Anaphe, most solemn rites were instituted in 
 honour of the victorious Apollo, who had a 
 grove, temple, and altar surrounded with shady 
 trees f (a paradise) in the centre of the island. 
 One of its ancient names is also worthy of 
 remark : it was called Baia,J like the town of 
 the same name in Italy, from the term bai, being 
 the Egyptian and Phoenician title for the palm 
 tree, which memorialized the Tree of Life. j 
 
 From these emblematical representations of 
 paradise being thus frequently formed of islands, 
 (whether they floated, or otherwise,) came the 
 idea of the " Fortunate Islands/' or " Islands 
 
 *Pliu. Nat. Hist. lib. ii. &7. Bochart. Canaan, p. 461. 
 lib. i. 15. 
 
 f • tol ftaykaov AiroWwi 
 
 AXcrei Evt cKiepit) TEfxevoQ ffKioevra re ficjfiov 
 Uouov. — Apoll. Rhod. lib. iv. 1714. 
 X Toiai Se ne "StTTopadiov BAIH airo Totyp? e<j>aaydrj 
 NrjiyoQ ideiv* — Id. 
 BAIH vr}ffO£, r) AvcKprj K\r)de~iira Ttkrioiov Qr)pa.Q. 
 
 Phavorin. schol. 
 Baie eadem (Anaphe) vocatur in Phavorini lexico. 
 
 Ortelius. 
 
122 
 
 " of the Blessed," so famous in classical, and 
 indeed all other mythology. To these blissful 
 abodes the heathen supposed the souls of the 
 virtuous were conveyed, and the Nr^oi MaKapw, 
 were in fact one and the same with the Elysian 
 fields of Egypt and Campania. Both, as has 
 been observed before, grew out of traditions of 
 that paradise which once existed upon earth, 
 and to which they conceived the state of blessed- 
 ness hereafter would be analogous. These 
 Insula? Beatse, therefore, were always consi- 
 dered as the gardens in which " a god was 
 " born," whether it was Apollo or Jove. Some 
 supposed them to exist at Thebes, in Boeotia; 
 where there was an inscription to the following 
 effect : — 
 
 Ai Vskti Maxaoouv Ntjcoi roQirfep rov apurrov 
 Zrjvoc Qecuv fictcitya,, Vsy rexe ?W svi 'XJMpw. 
 
 This remarkable tradition, derived to the 
 Boeotians from the great Thebes in Egypt, cele- 
 brated for its arkite memorials mingled with 
 those which were relative to Paradise, no doubt, 
 like many others, had its original source in the 
 promise first promulgated in Eden, of the 
 Deliverer, who was to be the Son of the 
 Highest, and who, by his mysterious birth into 
 this lower world, was to become the Saviour 
 
123 
 
 < 
 
 and Redeemer of mankind. The Insula? Beatae, 
 however, were not only at Thebes, but, accord- 
 ing to many writers, in the vast Atlantic Ocean, 
 and even some of the British Isles were deemed 
 worthy of this honourable distinction. Upon y 
 consulting the passages named in the note,* it J*Ut~ 
 will be seen what singular legends were con- ^7' 
 nected with them. Pindar has alluded to the <£*+^ 
 abode of the blessed, and the Nao-o; Maxa^v, in a j^£ 
 
 
 wonderful manner : 
 
 \<rov Ss vvxrEo-iriv aisi 
 \<rcc $ev apspcug, a\i- 
 
 ov s^ovrs; cnrovsctEpov 
 E<rXoi vE[j,ovfai /3<o- 
 
 rov ov XQova, Tocpcc<r<rov 
 
 TE$ OLKy. XEpuiV 
 Ou$£ rfQVtlQV vftuJp, 
 
 Keiyolv itoipoL Siourav aA- 
 Aa itapcc psv ?i[Mois 
 
 GeWV, OlTlVES EyCCl- 
 
 pov Evopy.ia.ig, 
 A8a,>tpvv vspovtai 
 Aiouva,. Tot Vaitpogopa,- 
 
 fOV OK^EQvn TtOVOV- 
 
 0<roi ^sroXpacrav Eg rpig 
 
 EKaTSpUJ^l ^ElVOLVTEg 
 
 Aito TtoL^itav aSiKCM e^eiv 
 ^uXolv, EtsiXacv Aiog 
 O8oy ifacpoc Kpov8 Tvp- 
 
 <riv: gy^aMAKAPUN 
 
 NA20N a^Edv^ES 
 Avpoci TtEpiitvEsviv ccy- 
 
 Qe^oc 8e %pv<rou <fy\syEt, 
 Ta psv xepcoQev, air a- 
 
 yXaoov fovtyscvv, 
 ttiwp £'aAAa <psp(3Ei. 
 Opioid rooy %EpOLs ava,- 
 
 rfXExovTi xou a-rsipavoig. 
 
 
 * Hesiod. spy and r^. 169. Horn. Odyss. xxiv. 11 to 14. 
 Eurip. Helen. 1693. Plut. in Q. Sertorio pp. 571, 572. 
 Dion. Frag. Coll. a Reim. torn ii. n. 1522. Philost. Vit 
 Apoll. lib. v. cap. 3. Lycophron. Cassand. 1194 and 1204, 
 and particularly the curious accounts given in the Scholia of 
 Isaacius on the places cited from the Cassandra. Pind, 
 Olymp. ii. 
 
There, in the hlksful fields of light, 
 Where Pbcebus, with an equal ray, 
 
 Illuminates the balmy n g 
 And gilds die cloudless da\ ; 
 
 The blest their happy hours employ. 
 Then, no uneasy wants con strain 
 
 To rex the ungrateful soil, 
 Or tempt the dangers of the billowy main, 
 
 And waste their strength in unavailing toil ; 
 A frail disastrous being to maintain. 
 
 But in their joyous calm abodes 
 The recompense of justice they receive, 
 
 And in die fellowship of gods, 
 Without a tear, eternal ages live. 
 While banished by the fates from joy and rest, 
 Intolerable woes the impious soul infest. 
 
 But they, who in theb virtue strong, 
 Th^ thnrf purgation c an endure. 
 
 Aril keep ±i\: Hmiil from t'raudful wrong, 
 
 And gwnYs contagion, pure. 
 They, thro* the starry paths of Jove, 
 To Saturn's Shechinah remove 
 The Island of the Blest, where vernal airs, 
 
 Sweet children of the main 
 Purge the sweet climate from corroding cares, 
 
 And fan the bosom of each verdant plain. 
 The fertile soil immortal fruitage bears ; 
 
 Trees, from whose flaming branches flow, 
 Arrayed in golden bloom, refulgent beams, 
 
 And lowers of golden hue . that blow 
 On the fresh borders of their parent streams. 
 These, by the blest, in solemn triumph worn, 
 
 locks adorn.* 
 
 West's Translation varied- 
 
/ 
 
 125 
 
 It cannot but be observed that the above is 
 nothing more nor less than the description of a 
 paradisaical state of happiness, where " their 
 " sun no more goes down," where sorrow and 
 sighing are never known, and where the soil of 
 itself produces every thing pleasant to the sight 
 and good for food, without labour or trouble, 
 as was actually the case before the ground was 
 cursed for the sin of man, and it was said, " In J 
 " sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy 
 "life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring 
 " forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the herb of 
 " the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou 
 " eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for 
 " out of it wast thou taken ; dust thou art, and 
 " unto dust shalt thou return." There is a 
 remarkable mention here made of the Tvpaig 
 Kpcvov, which I have ventured to translate " the 
 " Shechinah of Saturn, " it beiug, as I conceive, 
 derived from the tabernacle of the Cherubim, 
 once visible at " the east of the garden of Eden. ' 
 It may further be observed, that in this descrip- 
 tion, the poet has not omitted the 
 
 Ay0£/*a C£ XPY20Y fXiyu 
 ra fuv yipvofttv, at a- 
 y\aMV cevcpe&v: 
 
 all which seems equivalent to the Aureus 
 
126 
 
 Ramus of Virgil, and which waved on the 
 noblest trees in this paradisaic and sacred 
 garden. 
 
 The Hindoos possess traditions very similar 
 to the Ncktoc MaKapwv of classical mythology. 
 They suppose that a sacred river, descending 
 from heaven itself, surrounds an island called 
 Meru, the whole of which is laid out in one 
 delicious garden, with every advantage resulting 
 from the most fertile soil, and vernal clime, 
 while in the midst stands a wonderful tree, of 
 whose fruit whosoever eats, at once obtains all 
 the knowledge he can desire : in other w r ords, 
 " his eyes are opened, and he becomes as God, 
 " knowing good and evil." This tree of know- 
 ledge " in the midst of the garden" overshadows 
 the whole island, in which the first pair of inha- 
 bitants who ever resided were called Adim and 
 Iva, the latter pronounced Eva; and are still 
 so named in the sacred writings of the Hindoos. 
 Nor is this all ; for the river, after flowing round 
 the island of Meru, is said to have thence 
 separated into four vast streams, which directed 
 their waters east and west, north and south, 
 falling from the heads of an ox or cow, a lion, 
 a vulture, and an elephant; which animals, 
 with some variation, as is well known, compose 
 the Cherubim or cherubic-animal exhibition 
 
127 
 
 placed by the Lord God before the garden of 
 Eden. In many other respects, moreover, the 
 oriental Mern answers to the " Fortunate 
 " Islands ;" and exhibits also an admixture of 
 the same diluvian traditions. 
 
 Philostratus, in his description of the visit 
 made by Apollonius of Tyana* to the Brach- 
 manes, has preserved many curious memorials 
 which existed amongst that singular but learned 
 people. He mentions his arriving on the banks 
 of the river Hy-Phasis, or the Phison, where 
 was a grove consecrated to Venus, with trees 
 along the margin of the water producing a cer- 
 tain unguent or chrism connected with the rites 
 of marriage, and necessary .for their completion. 
 The peculiar abode of the Brachmanes was a 
 vast Tumulus, or sacred mountain, defended 
 by a Tursis, and surrounded with compound 
 animal figures. A sacred fire guarded the 
 entrance, while a cloud overshadowed the 
 whole, like the Shechinah of the Cherubim. 
 This celebrated Tumulus was considered as 
 the Omphalos, or Navel of India, and exhibited 
 all the traditionary memorials of paradise, such 
 as the fountain of lustration, and another of 
 
 * The learned reader may be referred to nearly th,e whole 
 of the third book of the Life of Apollonius, by Philos- 
 tratus. 
 
128 
 
 . judgment. All things were supposed to be 
 ( produced spontaneously without either labour 
 or sorrow, and the inhabitants of this extra- 
 ordinary place seem to have enjoyed a sort of 
 immortality and felicity analogous to a paradi- 
 saical state. It was also the seat of judgment 
 on all great occasions; and here, moreover, 
 was found the Phcenix, answering to the sym- 
 bolic Tree of Life, which grew in the midst of 
 the garden. 
 
 The names of the real paradisaic rivers may, 
 in fact, be traced among many, and those the 
 most distant nations. The name of the first 
 was prc*a Phison, or Pison, which was a title 
 conferred by the heathen, from tradition, upon 
 the Indus; as that of pn'j Gihon, the name of 
 the second river, was upon the Nile, " Uorafxoi 
 
 " ovofiaaTOL IvSog o kul <b£i<T(ov y NftXog 6 *ccu Tr\u)v * The 
 
 " two most celebrated rivers are, the Indus, the 
 " same as the Phison, and the Nile, which is 
 " called the Gihon." The river, also, of Col- 
 chis, rendered Phasis and Phasin, is, properly, 
 the Phison. It is, moreover, a most ancient 
 
 * Chron. Pasch. p. 34. Zonaras, p. 16. O Teojv o kvkXuv 
 naaav yr\v Ai0tO7riag, ov tyaoiv tv rr\ AiyvirTO) avcKpaivecrdaty 
 tov icaXovfievov NaXov. Theopb. ad Autol. lib. ii. p. 10 1* 
 The lxx. render the river mentioned in Jeremiah ii. 18. YirVttf 
 which is certainly the Nile, by the title of Trjwv, the Gihon, 
 
129 
 
 opinion, that the Ganges was called Phison,* 
 or that it at least bore one of the names of the 
 paradisaical rivers ; perhaps that of Gihon con- 
 tracted into Gan, and reduplicated Gangan, or 
 Gangen, whence Ganges. It was famed of old for 
 the gold and gems, such as " bdellium and the 
 " onyx stone," which the land it encompassed, 
 or was thought to have encompassed, pro- 
 duced : and mysterious rites, manifestly relating 
 to traditions of the early promise given in para- 
 dise of that great atonement which was to take 
 away all sin, were, and are even to this day, 
 celebrated on its borders. Gan may be either, 
 as has been said before, the contraction of 
 Gihon ; or it may be p Gan, the Hebrew word 
 used by Moses for the garden of Eden, whence 
 the river flowed, which parted afterwards "into 
 " four heads." 
 
 Philostorgiusf has shewn that the Hydaspes 
 was the ancient Phison ; he, moreover, tells us 
 that a particular tree which grew on the banks 
 was esteemed the very tree of paradise, by the 
 inhabitants of the country, which at all events 
 
 * Hieron. Epist. iv. ad Rust. c. i. Quaest. Hebr. in Genes. 
 August, de Gen. lib. viii. cap. 7. Ambros. de Parad. cap. 
 3. Epiphan. Ancor. cap. 58. Joseph. Ant. Jud. lib. i. cap. 2. 
 Arrian. Exped. Alexand. lib. v. Huet. de situ Parad. p. 28. 
 
 f Philostorg, lib. iii. cap. 10. 
 
130 
 
 demonstrates the existence of paradisaical tra- 
 ditions among them. The river Oxus, falling 
 into the Caspian Sea, had also the appellation 
 of the Phison, according to one author ; though 
 several have called it the Gihon ; which last 
 title was also conferred upon the Araxes. 
 
 Several other streams of great note were in 
 like manner called after the rivers of paradise. 
 The famous Pyramus,* in Cilicia, was honoured 
 of old with the title of the Gihon, as was also 
 one of the branches of the Tigris or Euphrates, 
 though it appears uncertain, which. There was 
 
 f a river in Palestine, near Jerusalem, the old 
 Canaanitish name of which was Gihon, the 
 same to which King David commanded his son 
 Solomon to be brought by Zadok, Nathan, and 
 Benaiah.f The paraphrase of Jonathan sub- 
 
 l stitutes the title mbm Siloah for that of Gihon, 
 its more ancient appellation; and these waters 
 supplied the pool to which the blind man in the 
 gospel J was directed by our Lord, and " which 
 " is, by interpretation, Sent." Both its names 
 appear to have been derived from a paradisaical 
 
 * It was also said to wash the walls of a city called Adana, 
 from py Eden. Huet. p. 46. 
 
 1 1 Kings i. 33. and 38. See also 2 Chron, xxxii. 30. 
 xxxiii. 14. 
 
 I John ix. 7. 
 
 \ 
 
131 
 
 source : the former being imposed by the hea- 
 then inhabitants of the country, from the tradi- 
 tions which they possessed concerning the river 
 of Eden, while the latter was probably given 
 it by the Jews, who possessed the oracles of 
 God, and by a more sure revelation, knew that 
 Shiloh, or Siloe (for the characters are nearly 
 the same in the original) was to be the Messiah 
 sent in the fulness of time, according to the first 
 promise so graciously given by Jehovah in 
 paradise. 
 
 The other two rivers mentioned by Moses, 
 are the ^pn Hiddekel and the ma Perath, which 
 the Septuagint and many other versions render 
 the Tigris and Euphrates. The last of these, 
 like the Ganges, Nile, and Hyphasis, was 
 thought to possess the virtue of cleansing those 
 from guilt, who bathed in its waters after per- 
 forming certain mysterious rites ; and of healing 
 all their diseases. Doubtless in all this, there 
 are plain vestiges discoverable of the real terres- 
 trial paradise, the Tree of Life, and the promise 
 given of the future Healer of all distress and 
 sorrow. 
 
 Another extraordinary tradition relative to / 
 these rivers is worthy of notice. They were 
 deemed to have their source in heaven itself. 
 
132 
 
 and Plautus* declares that the Nile flowed 
 from under the very throne of Jove. This 
 opinion seems to have arisen, from the circum- 
 stance of paradise being considered as the resi- 
 dence of the gods, and the abode of the happy. 
 Indeed Olympus is only a variation of Om- 
 phalos, being composed of the same radical 
 elements slightly transposed. This blissful 
 mountain, in fact, was but another memorial 
 of Eden:f its climate is represented by the 
 
 * The following extract from one of the acts of his Tri- 
 nummus is rather curious. The speakers are, Charmides an 
 old man, and the Sycophanta, who is asked by the for- 
 mer, " Quo inde istis porro ? Syc. Si animum advortas, 
 eioquar. — Ad caput amnis quod de caelo exoritur sub solio 
 Jovis ! Char. Sub solio Jovis } Syc. Ita dico. Char. E. 
 caelo ) Syc. Atque e medio quidem !" Plaut. Trin. Act iv. 
 sec. 2. p. 674, Ed. Elz. 1652. Homer gives the epithet Awte n?e 
 to several rivers, but especially to the Nile. Odyss. iv. 581. 
 
 f The same may be said of Ida, and some other sacred 
 mountains. Also from a paradisaical tradition was derived 
 that story of the deities going for a visit every year jut 
 afxvfiovag AiSioirrjas "to the sinless inhabitants of Ethiopia." 
 Homer says, that the land where they dwelt was ett Qkeclvov, 
 which was certainly the Nile, and the most ancient title of it. 
 Oceanus was of old written Q,yrjvoQ t which was a contrac- 
 tion of Ogehonus, or " the noble Gehon." Salmas. upon 
 Solin. cap. 35. Clemens. Alex. Strom, lib. vi. p. 741. Diod. 
 Sicul. lib. i. p. 12. Horn. Iliad. 1 . ver. 422. See also Bry- 
 ant, vol. 1. p. 296. And Theoph. ad Autol. ut supra. 
 
133 
 
 poets as cloudless and serene, while labour, 
 sorrow, and care had no existence within its 
 precincts. Its entrance, as well as that of 
 Mount Ida, was guarded by a cloud, which 
 opened and closed in a mysterious manner ; 
 whilst winged beings of a compound form 
 watched beside it. The pabulum on which they 
 lived, was called ambrosia ; and it was conceived 
 to confer life and immortality on those who 
 tasted it. The family, moreover, of the gods 
 answered in many respects to that of the great 
 Protoplast, of which we have an especial ac- 
 count. Saturn* is called by Orpheus a the 
 " offspring of heaven and earth," which remark- 
 ably describes Adam, whom the Lord God of 
 heaven " formed out of the dust of the ground." 
 His age is ever described by mythologists as a 
 golden one ; and we have seen that it was not 
 unconnected with sacred groves, and " one tree 
 " in the midst," in the instance of the oracle of 
 Dodona. His three sons, Jupiter, Neptune, 
 and Pluto, seem analogous to the Cain, Seth, 
 and Abel of our first parents ;f between whom 
 
 * Orph. et Hesiod. ap. Nat. Comet, lib. ii. cap. 2. p. 3(» 
 
 t The analogy also seems to apply with nearly the same 
 
 propriety to Ham, Shem, and Japhet, composing the family 
 
 of Noah, who must have divided the world amongst them 
 
 and their descendants, in the same manner as Adam did 
 
134 
 
 the antediluvian world was, as it were, divided ; 
 and as the last of these was the first upon whom 
 the sentence of temporal death, according to 
 the curse denounced in Eden, appears to have 
 passed, a series of corrupted traditions repre- 
 sented him as the monarch of the grave, and 
 presiding over the souls of the departed. The 
 heathen deities on Olympus are also represented 
 as marrying their sisters, which must have been 
 the case with the sons of Adam. It is manifest, 
 therefore, that all these pagan exhibitions of the 
 abode of their gods were, in great part, only so 
 many traditions derived from the garden of 
 paradise ; and that as far as they go, they at- 
 test the truth of scripture. They also present 
 us with a view of the ideas entertained amongst 
 the heathen, that this blissful garden was yet in 
 existence, although its precise situation was un- 
 known to them; and that it was often con- 
 sidered as the future residence of disembodied 
 spirits. Naturally enough, perhaps, paradise 
 was identified both as the Hades of departed 
 souls, and the abode of divine beings, who 
 
 before him amongst the Antediluvians. The heathen pos- 
 sessed manifest traditions of this triple division. Horn. Iliad, 
 xiv. 187. Plato in Crit. vol. iii. p. 109. Callimachus in 
 Hymn, ad Jov. v. 61. Lact. de Falsa Relig. lib. i. cap. 11. 
 Syncellus, p. 89. Euseb. Chron. p. 10. 
 
135 
 
 were looked upon as enjoying immortality and 
 happiness in the delicious retreat where the 
 skies were for ever fair, and the soil adorned 
 with flowers of amaranth and lawns of aspho- 
 del, blooming beside the banks of the sacred 
 and mysterious river, which at length emerged 
 from their joyous seat, and pursued its course 
 to the sea, amidst the habitations of mortals. 
 Hence such extraordinary rivers as the Nile 
 and the Ganges were imagined as flowing from 
 some fountain in heaven ; and hence those so- 
 lemn rites were instituted among the nations 
 upon their borders, which, derived from tradi- 
 tions of Eden, obscurely pointed to that only 
 mode whereby man might be cleansed from the 
 pollutions of sin, and permitted to re-enter the 
 paradise of God. Hence, also, some title of 
 one of the four rivers of Eden was usually be- 
 stowed upon the particular stream thus ve- 
 nerated ; and hence, as will be presently shewn, 
 when they consulted the oracle in the midst of 
 the grove or garden, surrounded by all that was 
 mysterious and awful, they slew some appointed 
 victim, and then clothing themselves in its skin, 
 waited all night for the response they looked 
 for. For nearly all these paradisi were es- 
 teemed oracular; and while they memorialized 
 the happiness of the first parents of mankind in 
 
136 
 
 immediate communion with God before their 
 fall, they also pointed to that future state of 
 existence where the 'presence of the Deity was 
 to be again for ever enjoyed ; — where sin and 
 sorrow were to be done away ; and of which 
 state of existence, Eden itself presented but a 
 feeble type or anticipation. 
 
 The paradisaic titles, however, were all 
 derived to the postdiluvian world by tradition ; 
 for after the flood, no such place as paradise 
 appears to have been in existence, on the surface 
 at least, of our globe ; and it is surprising to 
 see the waste of learning which has been made, 
 in order to discover the exact scite and situa- 
 tion of the garden of Eden. By the deluge, it 
 seems likely that the whole earth was dissolved, 
 and reduced again into its state of primeval 
 chaos; and of course, therefore, any place, or 
 mountain, or garden, or river, however well 
 known it might have been to the inhabitants of 
 the antediluvian world, could have no existence 
 on the renewed surface of the earth, as it rose 
 once more from the retiring waters. Tradition, 
 handed down by the family of Noah, preserved 
 some account of the former state of things, and 
 particularly of paradise. For it seems clear, 
 that after the expulsion of man from thence, on 
 account of his fall, a tabernacle of Cherubim 
 
137 
 
 was pitched on the east of Eden, and certain 
 rites of sacrificature instituted, which had a 
 reference to the restoration of mankind by the 
 amazing plan of redemption and atonement, to 
 the happy state he had so justly forfeited. 
 
 In a devout attention to these rites, accom- 
 panied with faith iu the promised atonement, 
 the religion of the patriarchs prior to the deluge, 
 consisted. When that tremendous judgment 
 was about to come upon the world, it appears 
 likely that the sacred garden,* with all its 
 mysterious accompaniments, was removed from 
 the earth to some place of security, where 
 scripture seems to affirm, it yet exists. For it 
 is surely hard to conceive that the paradise 
 planted by the immediate hand of God, which 
 
 * " Know that in the trees, fountains, and other things of 
 " the garden of Eden, were the figures of most curious 
 " things, by which the first Adam saw and understood 
 " spiritual things ; even as God hath given to us the forms 
 " and figures of the tabernacle, of the sanctuary, and of all 
 " its furniture, the candlestick, the table, and the altars for 
 " types of intellectual things, and that we might from them 
 " understand heavenly truths. In the trees, likewise, and 
 M fountains or rivers of the garden, he prefigured admirable 
 " mysteries." Rabbi Simon Bar Abraham, cited by Hut- 
 chinson. Heb. Writ. p. 21. Ta & <W £v\a, to ty\q faqs, xat 
 to Trig yvh)oe(og f ovk txr)Kev iTtoa ytj, a\V iv fiovoj tio irapadetow 
 Theoph. ad Autol. lib. ii. p. lOl! 
 
138 
 
 contained the Tree of Life and immortality, 
 which could suffer no sin unatoned for, to con- 
 tinue in it, which had witnessed the institution 
 of the covenant of grace on the ruins of that of 
 works, and which, lastly, was guarded by the 
 Cherubim themselves, those awful images of 
 the great ones ; # it is hard, I say, to conceive 
 that all this was swept away in the universal 
 deluge. Inspiration, moreover, which can 
 never fail, appears to have declared that the 
 contrast to such a supposition is the real fact. 
 It speaks of paradise as the abode of departed 
 spirits in their intermediate state of existence ; 
 that state of being, where the redeemed enjoy 
 an everlasting bliss, which is for ever and for 
 ever brightening till the day of the consumma- 
 tion of all things, when Hades itself shall be no 
 more ; and even the happiness of paradise is to 
 be swallowed up in the overwhelming glories of 
 the beatific vision ! 
 
 It is time, however, to consider a little the 
 favoured inhabitants of this blissful garden, be- 
 fore the catastrophe of the fall. At the close 
 of the sixth day, " God created man in his 
 
 * a»n3 — Literally "the similitude of the great ones!" 
 For further particulars on this point, the reader may be 
 referred generally to the writings of Hutchinson, Spearman, 
 Bate, Jones, and Parkhurst. 
 
y > OP THE 
 
 A* U " 
 
 M own image ; in the image of God created he 
 " him ; male and female created he them."* 
 This description is afterwards given again, 
 though in a form somewhat varied; " And the 
 " Lord God formed man out of the dust of the 
 " ground, and breathed into his nostrils the 
 " breath of life; and man became a living 
 " soul."f The tradition of man's being created 
 " in the image of God," was very clearly pre- 
 served amongst the heathen. Thus Ciceroj: de- 
 clares that " He who knows himself, will, in 
 " the first place perceive that he is possessed 
 " of something divine, and will think that the 
 " mind within him was dedicated like a sacred 
 " image." The author^ of the Metamorphoses 
 also, in terms equally plain, affirms that " the 
 " divine counsel formed man after the image 
 " of the gods, who govern all things." This 
 divine counsel, the poet personifies as Prome- 
 theus, who, as Hyginus|| expressly tells us, 
 " first formed men out of clay," while Vulcan, 
 at the command of Jove, added the woman ; 
 to whom " Minerva gave a soul, and the rest of 
 " the gods each conferred some gift; so that 
 " she was called from this, Pandora." Here we 
 
 • 
 * Gen. i. 27. t Gen. ii. 7. X Cic. de Leg. lib. i. cap. 22. 
 § Met. lib. i. ver. 83. || Hyg. Fab. 142. 
 
140 
 
 have the fact clearly recognized in the plainest 
 manner, by the heathens themselves, that " the 
 " first man and the first woman were formed 
 " by divine agency, and created after the image 
 " of their makers." A remarkable tradition, 
 moreover, of this is handed down to us by that 
 very ancient writer Sanchoniathon, who says, 
 that two mortals were first formed, who de- 
 rived their origin " from the wind or breath 
 " of Colpiah, and his consort Baau."* The first 
 of these terms is manifestly a composition of 
 three Hebrew words, n» »a ^ip Col-pi-jah, signi- 
 fying, " the voice of the mouth of Jehovah," 
 who " breathed into his nostrils the breath of 
 " life, and man became a living soul."f 
 
 But not only did the heathen possess tradi- 
 tions of the creation of man, but also of that 
 happiness which constituted his paradisaical 
 state; for we find in the mythology of every 
 
 • Baau has generally been supposed to be derived from 
 the inn Bohu, the "void" of Moses, Gen i. 2. Bochart. 
 Can. lib. ii. 2. p. 783. 
 
 + To these testimonies may be added the opinion of 
 Orpheus, cited by Eusebius ex Tim. Chronog, rap KoafioTt. 
 to$e Th)v avdpu)7rh)v yevoQ (eirfev Optyevc,) vtf ai/ra r« dm 
 nXaadev ek yr\q kcli ^X^ avra ^«/3civ XoyiKrjv. u The human 
 " race (says Orpheus) was framed by God himself out of the 
 " earth, and received from Him a rational soul." 
 
141 
 
 nation whose records are at all accessible, a 
 period called " the golden age," when inno- 
 cence and purity reigned amongst men, and the 
 earth of herself produced all that was necessary 
 for support and comfort, without toil, or any 
 kind of manual labour. The Goths, the Ger- 
 mans, the Druids, the Romans, Greeks, Egyp- 
 tians, and Hindoos, — all had these traces of 
 paradise incorporated in their rites and worship. 
 The beautiful descriptions of this golden period, 
 which have been preserved by classical writers, 
 are so well known, that it may suffice to offer 
 only the account of Hesiod,* the most ancient 
 of them all, to the reader's notice:— 
 
 Clg opoOev yeyaaci $eoi ^vtjtol r' avQptairoi 
 Xpvaeov fxev irpwriga yevog fxepo-rrwv avOpwirutp 
 Adavaroi Troirjffav, oXvfxina du)fiaT e^ovteq 
 Ot [itv etti xpovu tfffay, or ovpavto efifiaatkevev. 
 
 QiQ TE $EOl & E%(i)OV, EK^Ea QvflOV E^OVTEQ, 
 
 Noa<ptv arEp te irovtov kcu o'I^voq uSe Tt SeiXov 
 Tripag etttjv, aeei Se toSclq km \Etpag ofxotot 
 TepxovT ev $aA.i7/ori, kclkiov ektooQev cnravTatv. 
 Qvtjctkov r)'u>g virvta $E$fxrinEvoi EardXa h iravra 
 Toiffiv Er\v. Kapirov ft E<f>EpE fcttiitopog apovpa 
 
 AvTOflCLTT) TToXXoV TE KCtt CKJtdoVOV Ot 3' efeXjJ/iOl 
 
 H<TW)(oi Epya VEfxovro, ovv EaQXototv itoXeeooiv. 
 * Hesiod Opera et Dies. vcr. J 08, 
 
142 
 
 Soon as the deathless gods were born, and man, 
 A mortal race, with voice endow'd, began ; 
 The heavenly powers from high their work behold, 
 And the first age they style an age of gold. 
 Men spent a life like gods in Saturn's reign, 
 Nor felt their mind a care, nor body pain *, 
 From labour free, they every sense enjoy, 
 Nor could the ills of time their peace destroy ; 
 In banquets they delight, remov'd from care, 
 Nor troublesome old age intruded there ; 
 They die, or rather seem to die ; they seem 
 Transported only in a pleasing dream. 
 The fields, as yet until I'd, their fruits afford, 
 And fill a sumptuous and unenvied board : 
 Thus, crown'd with happiness, their every day ; 
 Serene and joyful, pass'd their lives away ! 
 
 Virgil, Ovid, Tibullus, and other writers, 
 have also preserved the same traditions ; and 
 the extent to which these prevailed, affords 
 singular evidence of the universal belief they ob- 
 tained : consequently, therefore, as far as they 
 go, additional proof is drawn from them of the 
 credibility of the account given by Moses. 
 That inspired historian,* moreover, informs us, 
 that " they were both naked, the man and his 
 
 * Gen. ii. 25. The word " naked'' is by some authors 
 derived from the Hebrew »pj Nakee, which signifies " inno- 
 " cent." Gurtler's Orig. Mundi. p. 8. See Gale's Court of 
 the Gentiles, &c. 
 
143 - 
 
 " wife, and they were not ashamed. " The 
 Egyptians possessed some memorial of this 
 blissful unconsciousness of our first parents in 
 their state of innocence. Diodorus says, " that 
 " the first men amongst them lived very hardy, 
 " before the conveniences or luxuries of life were 
 " discovered; being accustomed to go naked." 
 Plato, in his politics, has the following : — " God 
 " their governor fed them, being their keeper : 
 " in the same way, as man looks after the in- 
 " ferior animals, being a more divine creature 
 " than they are. They, moreover, fed naked, 
 " and were without garments in the open air." 
 
 Very soon, in all probability, was the lovely 
 picture changed; and by the primeval ances- 
 tors of mankind listening to the temptation of 
 an evil spirit, in the form of a serpent, who be- 
 guiled them to eat of the fruit of the forbidden 
 Tree of Knowledge, which grew " in the midst 
 " of the garden," they not only for themselves, 
 but for all their posterity, forfeited paradise, 
 immortality, and happiness. 
 
 Her rash hand in evil hour 
 Forthstretching to the tree, she pluckt, she ate : 
 Earth felt the wound, and nature from her seat, 
 Sighing through all her works, gave signs of woe 
 That all was lost. Back to the thicket slunk 
 The guilty serpent ! 
 
144 
 
 An idea of lost integrity seems to have per- 
 vaded the whole pagan world, and to have 
 mingled itself with the religious belief of all 
 nations, as will more fully appear, when we 
 come to consider the universality of the rites of 
 sacrificature. It has been supposed by more 
 than one learned author, that the ancient Druids 
 " believed in the doctrine of the defection of 
 " the human soul from a state of original recti- 
 " tude ;" and it is actually asserted to be the 
 invariable belief of the Brahmins, that man is a 
 fallen creature. The arguments, in both these 
 cases, are principally derived from the severe 
 penitential discipline to which they submitted, 
 with a view of ultimately regaining their lost 
 perfection. The Hindoos, we are informed, 
 have an entire Purana on this very subject ; the 
 story is there told in the same manner as it is 
 narrated by Moses ; the facts uniformly corre- 
 spond ; and the consequences are equally 
 tremendous.* 
 
 The same doctrine is inculcated by classical 
 mythology in the description given of the gra- 
 dual deterioration of man during the period 
 subsequent to the golden age. " The second 
 
 * Faber. Hor. Mos. vol. i. pp. G5 — 71. Home's Introd. 
 Crit. Study of the SS. vol. i. p. 176, with the authorities cited 
 by these, and other authors. 
 
145 
 
 " race," says Hesiod, "dreadfully degenerated 
 " from the virtues of the first; they were men 
 " of violence and rapine ; they had no delight in 
 " worshipping the immortals, nor in offering up 
 " to them those sacrifices which duty required." 
 Similar to this is the doctrine of scripture. By 
 the fall, every faculty of man was debased, 
 and he lost that kind of relish for divine com- 
 munion which once was equally the glory, the 
 privilege, and the felicity of his nature. 
 
 Some conceive that this dreadful event was 
 alluded to in the story of Pandora. " Eve was 
 " first endowed by God with consummate 
 " beauty and gracefulness ; but afterwards 
 " being seduced by Satan, she persuaded Adam, 
 " through the force of her blandishments, to 
 " violate the commandment of the Almighty. 
 "This circumstance is allegorically described 
 " by the poets in the fable of Pandora and 
 " Prometheus. That ancient personage is said 
 " to have stolen fire from heaven, and to have 
 " opened the mysterious box which inundated 
 " the world with sin and misery. Hope alone 
 " remained at the bottom of the casket, and 
 "that hope was Christ."* 
 
 However this may be, we shall be enabled 
 
 * Cluverius, cited by Faber. in Hor. Mos. 
 
'' 146 
 
 to trace the primitive tradition of the circum- 
 stances attendant upon the fall, far more clearly 
 in the mythic history of Orpheus. This ancient 
 personage is to be met with in the records of 
 various places, widely apart from one another. 
 In short, he is said to have travelled over the 
 whole earth ; a tradition, probably arising from 
 the vestiges of his worship, and oracles being 
 found to exist in so many different islands and 
 cities. He is, moreover, affirmed to have been 
 the first philosopher among mankind, and to 
 have handed down to all future generations, 
 accounts of the creation of the world out of 
 chaos, which were revealed to him in commu- 
 nion with the Deity himself.* He is said to 
 have charmed the whole brute creation by the 
 sound of his lyre, so that they followed him 
 whithersoever he went; a memorial doubtless 
 of the harmony which reigned amongst the 
 animals in paradise : when " the Lord God 
 " formed every beast of the field, and every 
 " fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam 
 " to see what he would call them ; and Adam 
 " gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of 
 " the air, and to every beast of the field." The 
 various animals flocking to the cave of the 
 
 * Nat. Com. lib. vii. 14. p. 227. 
 
147 
 
 Centaur, where Orpheus was playing, is de- 
 scribed in some ravishing lines by Onoraa- 
 critus : — * 
 
 Qrjpeg £>' atovreg aoi^rjQ 
 ^TTrikvyyoQ ifpoTrapoidev a\v<JKa£ovTEQ tfxtfivov. 
 Olmvol t eKVKXovvro fioavXia KevTctvpoio 
 
 TapaOlQ K£KfjLT](s)(TlV, €TJQ <? tXctdoVTO KakllJQ. 
 
 The beasts, now wondering at the breathing lyre, 
 Flock'd to the cave, with all the feather' d choir; 
 These, high in air, upon their weary wings, 
 Forget their nests, while the sweet harper sings. 
 
 Milton's simile may probably occur to the 
 mind of the reader, with which the angel ad- 
 dresses Adam ; — 
 
 As when the total kind 
 Of birds in orderly array, on wing, 
 Came summon'd, over Eden, to receive 
 Their names of thee; 
 
 The poet, probably from traditionary sources, 
 has extended his harmonious influence over 
 creation, even to the rocks and forests. f In 
 the Metamorphoses, he draws a complete 
 paradise around him : and it is not a little re- 
 markable, that the first and principal tree men- 
 
 * Orphic. Argonaut. 434. Gen. ii. 19. 
 t And even the winds and waves. Antholog. lib. iii. p. 269. 
 L 
 
148 
 
 tioned, is described as in allusion to the oak of 
 Dodona; that oracular tree of knowledge 
 which grew in the midst of the sacred enclo- 
 sure: — 
 
 Collis erat, collemque super planissima campi 
 Area ; quam viridem faciebant graminis herbae ; 
 Umbra loco deerat ; qua postquam parte resedit 
 Umbra loco venit, norj Chaonis abfuit arbos 
 Non nemus Heliadum ;* 
 
 Orpheus is said once to have dwelt amongst 
 the Edonians, who seem to have derived their 
 name from ?itf Eden, as we hear in the scrip- 
 turest of " the children of Eden, who were in 
 " Thelassar." His wife, whom he tenderly 
 loved, soon after her marriage, received a mortal 
 bite from a serpent, which occasioned his descent 
 into Hades ; which, as has been shewn, was 
 closely connected with memorials of paradise. 
 He is also represented as in some mysterious 
 connection with the rites of the Rhoia or Pome- 
 granate, which symbolized the malum, or for- 
 bidden fruit, by which our first parents fell from 
 their state of innocence, through the mortal 
 venom of the serpent affecting Eve the wife of 
 Adam, and bringing death upon herself, on her 
 
 * Ovid Metam. x. 80. f 2 Kings xix. 12. 
 
149 
 
 husband, and all their descendants. It is not 
 a little singular, that Orpheus, we are told, in- 
 structed his followers that " woman was the 
 " origin of all evil ;" which unwelcome truth is 
 said to have occasioned his destruction. He 
 was the author, moreover, of all sacrifices ; and 
 more particularly those, which were in an espe- 
 cial manner propitiatory, or relating to the taking 
 away sin by spilling the blood of certain ani- 
 mals. In consequence of this, he is introduced 
 by the mythologists, as the first high priest. 
 Certainly, the serpent makes a conspicuous 
 figure in his whole history; for not only were 
 the temples erected to his honour oracular, but 
 when his head was carried down the Hebrus to 
 the island of Lesbos, a serpent was affirmed to 
 have attacked it, when Apollo, who is fabled 
 to have been the parent of Orpheus, came upon 
 the monster, and turned him into a stone. He 
 is said to have lived nine ages, or, according to 
 some, eleven, as Suidas relates, and with his 
 death the whole universe is thought to have been 
 affected : some tell us that he was buried at 
 the foot of Mount Olympus. 
 
 It has been observed that many places were 
 sacred to Orpheus, where his history was well 
 known, and honours paid to his memory. His 
 death, indeed, as well as his life, was altogether 
 
150 
 
 mysterious, for it seems to have been celebrated 
 with frantic and awful rites, such as women 
 gashing themselves with knives, besmearing 
 themselves with their blood, and covering their 
 heads with ashes, as if acknowledging, how- 
 ever ignorantly as it regarded themselves, the 
 dreadful consequences of the fall. There is a 
 personage called Orpha, nearly the same as 
 Orpheus, (for both are merely mythological 
 titles implying an oracle of light,) connected 
 with Laconia, according to Servius. She is 
 represented as a nymph, who at the close of her 
 life was changed into a tree, which grew in a 
 sacred enclosure. All these legends may be 
 traced up to one and the same source, namely 
 the medial tree of paradise. Before we quite 
 dismiss Orpheus, we may observe that the 
 history of Amphion is, in some few respects, 
 similar. He is reported to have exercised the 
 same wonderful influence over the brute crea- 
 tion, and even to have built the walls of Thebes 
 with the sound of his lyre, connected as those 
 were with emblematical compound figures, 
 derived from distorted legends of the myste- 
 rious Cherubim.* 
 
 The general history of Proserpina, or, as the 
 
 * Bryant. Analys. Aiic. Myth. vol. ii. pp. 410 — 426. 
 
1 151 
 
 Greeks called her, Persephone, and sometimes 
 Cora, is well known. She is said to have been 
 the inhabitant of a beautiful garden in the centre 
 of the island of Sicily. Ancient writers have 
 handed down to us the most ravishing descrip- 
 tions of its situation and climate, with many 
 other features manifestly borrowed from tradi- 
 tions of Eden. Enna was the name of this 
 paradise of Trinacria, which was moreover 
 termed the Omphalos of Sicily, and considered 
 oracular, in the same manner as other places of 
 the same nature before described. According 
 to some authors, a sacred lake was connected 
 with the enclosure, called Pergus; and its 
 paradisaic situation is described in the Me- 
 tamorphoses.* 
 
 Silva coronat aquas, ciugens latus omne ; suisque 
 Froudibus ut velo, Phoebeos subniovet ictus. 
 Frigora dant rami, Tyrios humus humida flores. 
 Perpetuum ver est, quo dum Proserpina luco 
 Ludit, et aut violas, aut Candida lilia carpit; 
 Pene simui visa est, dilectaque raptaque Diti. 
 
 From this lovely enclosure, Persephone was 
 affirmed to have been carried off by the king of 
 hell to the shades below, from whence it was 
 
 * Metam. v. 388, 
 
152 
 
 considered impossible she could be redeemed, 
 because, as tradition reported, the unhappy 
 woman had gathered and eaten an apple, or 
 rather a pomegranate; at all events the forbidden 
 fruit. Ovid's description of this transaction 
 is remarkable; — 
 
 cultis dum simplex errat in hortis 
 Puniceum curva decerpserat arbore Pomum.* 
 
 This tree of evil, however, appears to have 
 been esteemed peculiarly sacred to her, and to 
 have been that important one which tradition 
 pointed out as having once grown in the midst 
 of the garden. Claudian, moreover, seems to 
 have looked upon Pluto, her ravisher, as death 
 himself, and in some fine verses pourtrays the 
 effects which the king of terrors produced by 
 his then entrance into the world. j" 
 
 Sanchoniathon has also preserved a singular 
 tradition as extant amongst the Phoenicians, 
 which was, that " Eon, the wife of Protogonus," 
 or the first man, " was the first person, who 
 "gathered fruit from trees;" and from this 
 pair, the ancient historian informs us, all man- 
 kind were descended. It may here, perhaps, 
 be inquired, of what particular species was the 
 
 * Metam. lib. r. 535. t De Raptu. Proscrp. iii. 235. 
 
153 
 
 forbidden fruit? Some have thought it was the 
 product of the vine, and others of the fig tree; 
 some have mentioned the cherry, and others the 
 apple. This last sentiment has prevailed, and 
 may be adduced as an instance of the respect 
 naturally paid to universal tradition. In the 
 holy scripture there seems but little better foun- 
 dation for it than the others; as merely the 
 " fruit of the tree of knowledge in the midst of 
 "the garden," is mentioned. We may here, 
 however, just observe, that the following pas- 
 sage, from a version of the Canticles, is usually 
 cited in favour of the apple ; " I awakened thee 
 " under the apple tree, — there thy mother lost 
 " her innocence/' We render this passage in our 
 translation $ " I raised thee up under the apple 
 " tree ; there thy mother brought thee forth ; 
 " there she brought thee forth that bare thee."* 
 It is certain, at all events, that memorials are 
 met with in mythology, of this " forbidden 
 " fruit," and that it was looked upon as the 
 source of death and discord, although con- 
 nected, at the same time, with the sacred insti- 
 tution of marriage, and other features of para- 
 dise. Thus the marriage of Hippomenes and 
 
 * Sol. Song, cap. viii. 5. Cahnet. See also a Note in tho 
 Varior. Edit, of Sulp. Sever, p. 7. 
 
154 
 
 Atafanta,* the latter of whom had been a means 
 of death to so many, is found to have been in 
 connection with three golden apples, gathered 
 from the garden of the Hesperides, which, it 
 may be remarked, seems to have derived its 
 name from na yy Hets peri, "a tree of fruit;" 
 and we discover, from the Metamorphoses, that 
 this tree grew in the midst of the garden, or 
 sacred enclosure ; this, moreover, is further 
 mentioned by Ovid, as having been dedicated 
 by the first of mankind to the worship of Venus, 
 who says, in speaking of it, I 
 
 quern mihi prisci 
 Sacravere senes ; medio nitet arbor in arvo ; 
 Fulva comam, fulvo ramis crepitantibus auro.f 
 
 One of these golden apples was thought to 
 have been thrown by Discord among the 
 deities assembled to celebrate the marriage of 
 Peleus with Thetis. Juno, Minerva, and Venus 
 thereupon came to Paris, a shepherd of Mount 
 
 * Nat. Com. vii. 7 and 8. 
 
 t Ovid Metam. x. 645. From the description, it appears 
 pretty evident, that there was a connection between this tree, 
 and that which was reported to flourish in the midst of 
 Hades, from whence the golden branch was gathered. Mneid 
 vi. 136. 
 
155 
 
 Ida, for the decision of the matter, to whom the 
 fancied prize was to be given. The legend is 
 indeed much confused, and distorted ; but 
 from the whole laid together, there appears a 
 plain allusion to this "forbidden fruit" through 
 the medium of a woman having proved the 
 source of sorrow and mortality. Paris, like 
 other mythic heroes, is said to have travelled 
 over many parts of the world, and various places 
 are mentioned in different authors, as having 
 been the actual scenes of the transaction : but 
 this only proves how widely the memorials had 
 spread of paradise, and the effects attendant 
 upon the fall of man.* There were also some 
 curious ceremonies among the ancients con- 
 nected with matrimony, or at least the object of 
 it; such as "throwing an apple," while the 
 women wore serpents about their wrists, by 
 way of bracelets :f which leads us to consider 
 rather more closely the particular form, which 
 the tempter assumed when he so artfully 
 attacked and overcame our first parents. 
 
 Chalcidius to Timceus, cited by Le ClercJ in 
 his notes on Grotius, mentions " that serpent 
 
 * Nat. Com. vi. 23. p. 198. 
 
 t 1 Aristan. lib. i. Ep. 10. Arch. Attic. Rous. lib. iv. 5. 
 p. 161. 
 
 t Grot, de Verit. lib. i. sec. 16, 
 
156 
 
 " who, by his evil persuasions, deceived the 
 " first of mankind ;" and as one of his titles was 
 0<M2 Ophis, it was from thence, according to a 
 very probable conjecture, that the prince of 
 those who contended with the king of heaven, 
 was by Pherecycjes* called o<f>iovEvg Ophioneus ; 
 who is described by Ccelius Rhodiginus, as 
 " daemoniacum serpentem qui antesignanus 
 " fuerit agminis a divinae mentis placito defi- 
 " cientis." Of the fall of wicked angels, who 
 kept not their first estate, but became enemies 
 of God and heaven, the ancients had many tra- 
 ditions ; some of the most remarkable of which 
 are those relating to the giants and Titans in- 
 vading the abodes of bliss, and being from 
 thence cast down into hell or tartarus, where 
 they are represented as suffering the torments 
 of eternal fire.f Homer, Plutarch, and others, 
 have preserved memorials of a like nature ; 
 
 * Euseb. lib. i. cap. 10. Cael. Rhod. Ant. ii. 7. Stilling- 
 fleet. Orig. Sac. iii. 3. 
 
 f Plutarch calls them '* tov$ QerjXarovs km. ovpavoTcerovs 
 "daifiovas demons driven from (the presence of) God, and 
 " falling down from heaven." See also Dickenson. Phys, Vet. 
 et. Ver. p. 10. These Titans and giants are generally repre- 
 sented as half serpents, on ancient marbles and vases. Mneid 
 vi. 580. Horn. Iliad xix. 129, with Dacier's note on the 
 place, and Justin Martyr, Cohort, ad Gra?c. p. 28. 
 
157 
 
 and it is also certain that the great deceiver of 
 mankind soon turned that alienation of heart 
 from the true God, of which he had been the 
 source, to such account, as to cause himself to 
 be made the object of worship by the deluded 
 generations of mankind. The commencement 
 of, perhaps, the earliest species of idolatry, 
 was in the consecration of memorials of that 
 paradise which man had lost, through the sug- 
 gestions of the tempter. These memorials, as 
 has been shewn, consisted of sacred groves or 
 gardens, with more or less of the symbols of 
 Eden, and the other circumstances connected 
 with it, in proportion as the traditions of truth 
 existing among them, were more or less vivid. 
 As the serpent had made so conspicuous a 
 figure in the affecting scene which took place in 
 that celebrated garden, he was very soon con- 
 sidered as the deity of the place, and adored 
 accordingly. And as mankind sprang from 
 one origin, and after the flood were scattered 
 over the face of the whole earth, they carried 
 with them, wherever they went, the rites of 
 this awful idolatry ; mingled, however, with 
 many traces of the primitive history. Hence 
 the worship of the serpent is to be met with 
 every where : and under his symbol, nature her- 
 self, and the vast expanse of the heavens, were 
 
158 
 
 said to have been described, in the ritual of 
 Zoroaster. The like was mentioned in the 
 octateuch of Ostanes ; and, moreover, that in 
 Persis and other parts of the east, temples 
 were erected, and festivals instituted to the 
 honour of the serpent tribe, esteeming "them 
 " the supreme of all gods, and the superinten- 
 " dants of the whole world."* The worship 
 is said to have begun in Chaldea, and from 
 thence passed into Egypt. From the banks of 
 the Nile, it seems to have overspread all the 
 shores of the Mediterranean, as well as the 
 islands of that vast sea. Tenos, one of the 
 Cyclades, was once supposed to have swarmed 
 with serpents ; and the same legend is men- 
 tioned as to Rhodes, Seriphus, Eubcea, Crete, 
 and Cyprus. Of what particular species they 
 were, is not specifically mentioned, except that 
 in the last mentioned island, about Paphos, 
 " there was a kind of serpent with two legs." 
 By this, is meant the Ophite race, or colonies 
 who brought the idolatry and traditions con- 
 nected with it from Egypt. Legendary me- 
 morials, similar to these, prevailed also at 
 Athens and Sparta, at Thebes in Bceotia, at 
 Argos, and Amyclae, in Italy. Innumerable 
 
 * Bryant de Opbiolat. vol. ii. et al. 
 
159 
 
 places intimately connected with them, received 
 of consequence their names from the titles of 
 this monster deity. Hence we hear of cities, 
 hills, rivers, and countries called Opis, Ophis, 
 Ophionia, Ophioessa, Ophiodes, and Ophiusa; 
 also Europus, Ellopus, Oropus, Asopus, Inopus, 
 and (Ethiopia. Many more might be added, 
 but in the compass of a single treatise, it is 
 scarcely possible to do more than glance at the 
 subject. All these various places will be found 
 connected with some of the paradisaical tradi- 
 tions ; such as the victory of a divine hero over 
 the serpent, or the like. As death entered the 
 world through his devices, the ancient heathen 
 more especially seem to have made the graves 
 of their great men, the scenes of their symbolic 
 memorials. When, therefore, one of their heroes 
 died, either in battle or otherwise, (and what 
 was very remarkable, there was generally some 
 legend of a conflict with a serpent attached to 
 his history) they enclosed a space of ground of 
 some acres, cast up a mound,* planted certain 
 trees, established rites of fire, and often fabled 
 that either Gryphins, or some other compound 
 
 * Sometimes a whole society or college of hierophants 
 appears to have resided on the sacred Tumulus. See a 
 curious mention of a place of this sort in Philostratus de Vit. 
 Apoll. lib. i. cap. 24. p. 31. And the iii. lib. passim. 
 
160 
 
 animal figures watched over it ; and then called 
 the whole a paradisos. Many ancient temples 
 were, in fact, originally tombs ; and the sacred 
 personages to whom they were consecrated, 
 have been represented as there buried ; but the 
 origin of the whole superstition is, I think, 
 manifest. 
 
 The great promise, first promulgated in para- 
 dise, was, " that the seed of the woman should 
 " bruise the head of the serpent ;" and vestiges of 
 this precious truth were never entirely erased 
 even from the darkest corners of pagan mytho- 
 logy. Sweet to the soul of man, however lost, 
 however degenerated, was the doctrine of the 
 atonement, which, springing up in Eden, as the 
 source of the only hope of man, found its way, 
 although often, as it were, by subterraneous 
 channels, to every part of the habitable globe. 
 In the volume of revelation, indeed, its mighty 
 tide is seen flowing like a vast river towards 
 the ocean of eternity : how strange, then, must 
 it appear that its very fountain should have 
 been, by some, disputed, the consolitary efficacy 
 of its waters denied, and the history of the 
 scene which beheld its rise, called in question. 
 Let us see, however, whether the earliest voice 
 of mere unenlightened tradition is contrary 
 to that account furnished by inspiration. Im- 
 
161 
 
 mediately on the fall of man, certain rights of 
 sacrificature were evidently instituted to keep 
 in mind, by means of outward types and visible 
 signs, this inestimable promise, until the fulness 
 of time should come, and the Desire of all na- 
 tions be born into the world. It is said, that 
 after their expulsion from paradise, " unto 
 " Adam and his wife, did the Lord God make 
 " coats of skins and clothed them ;" a remark- 
 able piece of sacred history, which will come 
 more under our notice shortly. These skins 
 were, most probably, taken from the animals 
 slain in sacrifice.* And shortly after this, we 
 find Abel " bringing of the firstlings of his 
 " flock, and of the fat thereof; and the Lord 
 " had respect unto Abel, and to his offering ;"f 
 for he seems to have approached Jehovah as a 
 transgressor, bearing, in faith, the constituted 
 emblem of that Lamb of God emphatically 
 said to have been slain from the foundation of 
 the world. Sacrifice, then, was instituted on 
 
 * It should be remembered, that it was not until after the 
 deluge, that God said, " Every moving thing that liveth 
 M shall be meat for you; even as the green herb, have I 
 " given you all things." All animals, therefore, legitimately 
 slain previous to that period, must have suffered for the pur- 
 pose of sacrifice. 
 
 t Gen. iv. 4, 
 
162 
 
 the fall of man, to remind him that without 
 shedding of blood, there could be no remission 
 of sin ; and consequently, no return to that gra- 
 cious communion with his Maker, which he had 
 once enjoyed in paradise ; and that the manner 
 of the fulfilment by Jehovah of his promise, 
 would be the offering thereafter of the one great 
 atonement made by Him, who being, according 
 to the flesh, *' of the seed of the woman," 
 would effectually " bruise the head of the ser- 
 " pent." Example and tradition went hand in 
 hand, and after the flood, when mankind mul- 
 tiplied again, and were dispersed anew all over 
 the world, each family carried with them to 
 their place of destination the symbols they had 
 preserved of what that great propitiatory re- 
 demption was to be ; and in what manner and 
 by what means it was to be effected. Hence 
 we observe, that about the time of our Saviour's 
 actual appearance upon earth, the advent of 
 some exalted personage was universally ex- 
 pected ; not only by the Magi in the east, but 
 even by the Romans in the western quarter of 
 the world.* This circumstance must have had 
 its source (at least among distant heathen na- 
 tions) from the prevalence of certain traditions. 
 
 * Sueton. Vit. Vesp. cap. iv. Tacit Hist. v. 13. 
 
163 
 
 which also taught them, at the same time, to 
 continue in the performance of certain solemn 
 rites practised by their forefathers, which con- 
 sisted principally in offering up sacrifices of 
 animals, in acknowledgment of the necessity of 
 the one true and great atonement, which was 
 to be completed in and by Christ the everlasting 
 Saviour. The same voice of tradition instructed 
 them to offer no imperfect or impure animal as 
 a victim, but to select particularly those crea- 
 tures for this sacred purpose, whose natural 
 temper and character appeared, in some de- 
 gree, analogous to that glorious object intended 
 to be thereby typified : they, moreover, poured 
 out the blood of the immolated lamb, or what- 
 ever the sacrifice might be, either on or round 
 about the altar; and with all this, many of 
 them entertained opinions relative to the grand 
 expected propitiation, which at once evinced a 
 sense of human guilt and imperfection, together 
 with a hope that all evil would at length be 
 entirely removed from the race of man, and 
 peace and righteousness once more overspread 
 the earth. 
 
 We perceive further, that the ancients had a 
 notion of blood that might be shed, which was 
 in its very nature far purer than that of any 
 animal, or other victim they could themselves 
 
 m 
 
164 
 
 offer. This was no other than the " blood of 
 "their gods," denominated by them Ichor; a 
 term which has allusion to those sacrificial 
 offerings which were in fact but shadows of 
 the great atonement. Thus, Ichor is used by 
 the psalmist to denote " the precious part of 
 " lambs," which was always consumed by fire 
 upon the altar. The same word is also used 
 by Zechariah to describe that " price or value" 
 prophetically set upon the future Saviour.* 
 Homer mentions it in two passages ; 
 
 pee £ ajjiflporov aifxa Qeoto 
 IX£1P otog 7rep re peei ficucapeffai Qeoicrt I etc. 
 From the clear vein the immortal Ichor flow'd 
 Such stream as issues from a wounded god ; 
 Pure emanation, uncorrupted flood 
 Unlike our gross, diseas'd terrestrial blood. 
 H'pa kcli ajx^oreprjffLV wk IXI2P yzipoc, ofiopyvv. 
 This said, she wip'd from off her wounded palm 
 The sacred Ichor, and infus'd the balm. 
 
 Let us, however, for the present, examine 
 more particularly those traditions which the 
 heathen embodied in the actions of their princi- 
 pal mythic personages; and which especially 
 related to the great promise under consider- 
 ation. A very large proportion of the heroes of 
 antiquity have one grand and conspicuous ac- 
 
 * Psalm xxxvii. 20. Zechar. xi. 13. Iliad v. 339. and 
 416. Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. voc *ip». 
 
165 
 
 tion represented to our view, in their history ; 
 and that action is the victory over a serpent. 
 Among the foremost of these, is Apollo. He is 
 declared to have been the offspring of the father 
 of all things, and to have been bom into this 
 lower world in a sacred enclosure, typical of 
 the paradise wherein the great promise was 
 first promulgated, between a palm and an olive 
 tree ; which appear to have symbolically repre- 
 sented the Tree of Life, and the Tree of Know- 
 ledge, which grew in the midst of Eden.* His 
 advent was looked for, according to Hesiod, as 
 
 Ifiepoevra yovov Trspi iravrtov Ovpaviuwv. 
 
 The sun was his emblem in heaven, as a type 
 of the glory he there enjoyed ; and whenever he 
 pleased to descend upon earth, the rocks, the 
 fields, and the mountains are described as re- 
 joicing in his presence, and acknowledging him 
 the lord of nature. However, at length, he is 
 said to have incurred the heavy wrath of his 
 father, and, inflamed with love to mankind, 
 he left the bright seat of his glory, became a 
 wanderer and an exile in the world ; and is 
 found at last in the lowly character of a 
 shepherd, feeding the flocks of Admetus, king 
 of Thessaly. Some have supposed that in the 
 
 * Nat. Com. lib, iv. 10. 
 
166 
 
 name of this monarch > the title of our first fore- 
 father, ems* Adam may be recognized ; but be 
 this as it may, certainly from the last circum- 
 stance, may be derived one of the titles of 
 Apollo, who was hence called No/xio e or the 
 shepherd. It is true, indeed, that these tradi- 
 tions were often most grossly corrupted and 
 misapplied ; but our present object is to sepa- 
 rate, as far as possible, between what is im- 
 portant, as being derived from primeval tradi- 
 tion, and what was afterwards added by the 
 mere imagination of man. The ancient pro- 
 phets sometimes spoke of the future deliverer, 
 under this humble character of a shepherd ; an 
 instance of which occurs so early as the days 
 of Jacob, who, when he was dying in Egypt, 
 declared that from the Mighty God of himself 
 and his fathers should proceed " the Shepherd 
 " of Israel. " Most likely the Egyptians were 
 not inattentive to the prophecies of the expiring 
 patriarch, if we may judge from the respect 
 paid him by that nation at large, on his death 
 and burial. Another most remarkable epithet 
 conferred upon Apollo was that of Kapveiog* or 
 Carnean, from the Hebrew i*\p Keren, which 
 signifies a horn. While it denotes, generally 
 
 * Pausan. Corinth, p. 134 Laconic, p. 264. ; et Messen. 
 p. 356. Nonnus applies *h.e same title to Apollo. Dionyss. 
 xvi. p. 290. 
 
167 
 
 speaking, either strength or power, there also 
 seems to be an allusion to that species of sa- 
 cred vessel, which contained the oil or perfume 
 with which kings and priests were anointed. 
 So that the title Kapvaog which is a contraction 
 of Kereneius, may be rendered by implication, 
 Apollo " The Anointed." The principal ac- 
 tion, however, of this deity, was the overthrow 
 and destruction of the serpent called Python, 
 traditional memorials of which victory, as we 
 have seen, are discoverable in so many parts of 
 the world, and are generally connected with sa- 
 cred gardens. The serpent Python was none 
 other than a symbolic personification of " that 
 " old serpent, the great dragon called the devil 
 " and satan, which deceiveth the whole world." 
 From this attributed victory, Apollo was looked 
 upon as the great deliverer of the human race ; 
 and Callimachus in his beautiful hymn, ad- 
 dresses him accordingly, 
 
 Ev£e at firjTnp 
 Yeivar' AOSSHTHPA* 
 
 Thee, thy blest mother bore, and pleas'd, assign'd 
 The willing Saviour of distress'd mankind. 
 
 In memory, moreover, of this, the Pythian 
 games (so called from Python the conquered 
 
 * Hymn, in Apoll. Callim. 103. The whole of this singu- 
 lar poem is well worth the learned reader's attentive perusal. 
 
168 
 
 serpent) are said to have been founded ; which 
 were in truth only certain mysterious rites, of 
 which gymnastic and other exercises formed a 
 part, and wherein allusions were continually 
 made to the expected fulfilment of that great 
 promise, first proclaimed in paradise, after the 
 fall of our first parents. " Apollinem ipsum 
 " prse lcetitia victoriae ejus certaminis in quo 
 " Pythonem ceciderat, Pythicos ludos institu- 
 " isse — poma quaedam Deo consecrata victori- 
 " bus donari solita, ut scripsit in libro de co- 
 " ronis Ister." # The rewards given to the con- 
 querors in these games, were " certain apples 
 " consecrated to the god." They moreover 
 carried branches of palm in their hands, which 
 they waved in triumph, singing paeans in honour 
 of Apollo, and shouting " Eva! Eva!" In all 
 this, the allusions to paradise and the primeval 
 promise, are too plain to be mistaken. There 
 was likewise a song called nvSucoe vofiog Pythicus 
 Nomos, to which a dance was performed, 
 which consisted altogether of five parts, wherein 
 the supposed conflict between Apollo and Py- 
 thon was scenically represented. The first 
 part was termed AvaK^aiQ and contained " the 
 " preparation for the fight ;" the second was 
 called Efnceipa or " the first essay towards it ;" 
 
 * Nat. Com. lib. v. cap. 2. p. 133. 
 
169 
 
 the third division was the KaTaKeXeva fiog, which 
 comprised " the action itself," and the divine 
 hero's exhortation in soliloquy to stand out 
 with courage to the last : the fourth consisted of 
 the ia/i/3ot kul AclktvXoi, or " the triumphant sar- 
 "casms of Apollo over his vanquished enemy; 
 " while the fifth part included the Zvpiyyeg, which 
 " were imitations of the serpent's hissing, when 
 " he ended his life."* 
 
 The history of Hercules is equally remark- 
 able ; for he is said to have had the same father 
 as Apollo, though his mother was a mortal; 
 whose husband, Amphitryon, passed for his re- 
 puted parent. Even in his cradle, he is said 
 to have engaged the " power of the serpent;" 
 for two of those reptiles being sent to destroy 
 him, he strangled them both in an instant, f 
 His birth into the world was the object of 
 deepest interest both among gods and men; 
 and the many and varied labours, which he 
 afterwards endured (the overthrow of the Ler- 
 nean hydra or serpent amongst the rest) appear 
 
 * Potter's Arch. Graec. lib. ii, 22. 
 
 t Infans cum esset, dracones duas duabus manibus necavit 
 quos Juno miserat, unde Primigenius estdictus, Hygin. p. 71. 
 There is an inscription iu Gruter, " Herculi Primigenio." 
 p. 315. Primigenius primitivus aliunde non habens originem. 
 Faber. Thesaur. iElian de Animal, xii. 5. 
 
170 
 
 to have been designed as emblematical memo- 
 rials of what the real Son of God and Saviour 
 of the world, was expected to do and suffer for 
 our sakes ; 
 
 Nouffwv OeXurripia 7ravra ko/«£W 
 Bringing a cure for all our ills. 
 
 as the Orphic hymn* speaks of Hercules. It 
 is very extraordinary that there are exploits 
 attributed to this mighty character, supposed to 
 have been performed by him, even before his 
 mother Alcmena brought him into the world ! 
 Thus he is made to assist the gods in conquer- 
 ing the rebellious giants,f while some ancient 
 authors mention " an oracle or tradition in 
 " heaven, that the gods could never conquer 
 " them without the assistance of a man.' 
 Surely then, even the pagans had some idea, 
 however confused, of that mysterious union 
 of a human with a divine nature, which was to 
 be exhibited in " the Desire of all nations, 
 " who verily was foreordained before the foun- 
 
 * Ver. 14. 
 
 f " Ipse (Hercules) creditur gigantas interemisse cum 
 " coelo propugnaret, quasi virtus decrum." And who these 
 giants were, is evident from what follows : — " Horum pedes 
 «' in draconum volumina desinebant." Macrob. Saturn, i. 20. 
 Apollodor, Bibliot. i. 20. 
 
OP 1 THH^ 
 
 171 
 
 " dation of the world, but was made manifest 
 " in the last times." 
 
 It is also told of Hercules, that he slew an 
 enormous serpent, which guarded some cele- 
 brated apples in the sacred garden of the Hes- 
 perides. It has already been shewn that this 
 tradition and others of a like nature, may be 
 traced up to the primeval paradise. The for- 
 bidden fruit is clearly pointed at in this mythic 
 legend ; and the introduction of the tempter, 
 who is here represented as " guarding them," 
 instead of seducing others to gather them, 
 exhibits just that kind of variation from the 
 original and true history, which proves there 
 was no collusion between the borrowed tradi- 
 tion, and the inspired account, to the truth of 
 which, such tradition adds its correlative tes- 
 timony. This tradition respecting Hercules, 
 the serpent, and the apples of the Hesperides, 
 is stated in a very remarkable manner by Era- 
 tosthenes,* cited by a learned living author. 
 Speaking of the constellation of the serpent, f 
 
 * Erat. Catast. sec. iii. and iv. cited by Faber in Hot. Mos. 
 Annot. vol. i. p. 345. Hygiu. Poet Astron. pp. 361—369* 
 
 f On the Farnese globe, (the only ancient one perhaps in 
 the world) about forty of the constellations yet remain nearly 
 perfect. The asterism Engonasis, or Ingeniculus, is one of 
 them ; and, according to Avienus, represents Hercules almost 
 
172 
 
 he says, " This is the same as that which 
 " guarded the golden apples of the Hesperides, 
 " and was slain by Hercules, For, according 
 " to Pherecydes, when all the gods offered pre- 
 " sents to Juno upon her nuptials with Jupiter, 
 " the earth also brought golden apples. Juno, 
 " admiring their beauty, commanded them to 
 " be planted in the garden of the gods ; and 
 " finding that they were continually plucked 
 " by the daughters of Atlas, she appointed a 
 11 vast serpent to guard them. Hercules over- 
 " came and slew the monster. In this constel- 
 " lation accordingly, the serpent is depicted 
 " rearing aloft its head, while Hercules placed 
 " above it with one knee bent, tramples with his 
 "foot upon its head, and brandishes his club in 
 " his right hand." Here we recognize again the 
 analogy between the gods of Olympus and the 
 paradisaic family, with the other memorials re- 
 lating to Eden justly incorporated therewith. 
 
 Homer likewise mentions a tradition of Her- 
 cules having overcome and mortally wounded 
 
 tired with his long fight with the serpent, which kept the gar- 
 den of the Hesperides : in memory of which, Jupiter placed 
 his figure in the heavens, with his heel bruising the great ser- 
 pent's head, Avien. ver. 193. Spence's Polym. Philostratus 
 actually gives this mythic hero Hercules the title of " the 
 * Saviour of men !" Vit. Apoll. lib. viii. 9. 
 
173 
 
 the king of the infernal regions, in which in- 
 stance, the character of Pluto is confounded 
 with that of the serpent. 
 
 TXrf S AidrjQ ev rotcri Tekupiog wkvv oiarov 
 Evre \uv ojvtoq avrjp, vloq Siog atyLO)(pLO, 
 Ei> ttvXio ev vEKveffffi fia\(ov o()vvri<nv edojKEV 
 Even hell's grim king Alcides' power confest, 
 The shaft found entrance in his iron breast ; 
 From the great son of Jove, he wounded fled, 
 Pierc'd in his own dominions of the dead ! 
 
 Hercules it was, according to some, who in- 
 stituted the Nemean games, respecting the 
 origin of which, there was an obscure story 
 about a serpent. In all these memorials, one 
 leading feature appears discernible, bearing 
 testimony to the blessed promise of a deliverer 
 from the power and influence of the serpent ; a 
 promise handed down amongst all generations, 
 and shedding, as it were, through clouds and 
 darkness, a ray upon the most gloomy regions 
 of heathenism. 
 
 There is yet another circumstance in which 
 Hercules presents a traditionary type of the ex- 
 pected Saviour. It is affirmed of him, that on 
 a certain occasion, he was swallowed by a great 
 
 * Horn. Iliad v. 395. 
 
174 
 
 fish, in whose belly he remained three days and 
 three nights, but at last escaped alive. This 
 piece of legendary history plainly relates, in a 
 primary sense, to the prophet Jonah, who was 
 " a sign to the Ninevites," and who is al- 
 luded to by Christ himself, when he says, " For 
 " as Jonas was three days and three nights in 
 " the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be 
 " three days and three nights in the heart of 
 " the earth." Now, iEneas Gazaeus calls the 
 fish that devoured Hercules by the very name 
 mentioned both in St. Matthew and the Septua- 
 gint: "as Hercules also is reported, when he 
 " was shipwrecked, to have been swallowed 
 " by a whale, and yet to have been saved." 
 Lycophron calls the fish the Canis Carcharias or 
 eea dog, according to Bochart; and particularly 
 alludes to the period he remained in the mon- 
 ster's belly; — 
 
 Tpieff7T£pov XeovTOQi ov vote yvaSoig 
 Tpirtavoe r)fia\a\pe mpyapoq kviov* 
 Trinoctis leonis, quem olim maxillis 
 Tritonis deglutivit asper canis. 
 
 * Lycoph. Cassand. ver. 33. ; and the Scholia of Isaac. 
 p. 20. Rom. ed. 4to. JLneas Gazaeus cit. ap. Bochart, 
 vol. iii. 742. Cyrillus et Theophylact. ap. Voss. de Orig. 
 Idol. lib. ii. 15. Grotius de Verit. lib. i. sec. 16. not. 105. 
 
175 
 
 Isaacius, the scoliast, observes upon this pas- 
 sage, " I am of opinion that Lycophron here calls 
 " Hercules Triesperon, because he continued 
 " in the whale three days, which are termed 
 " nights by the poet, to denote the gloom and 
 " darkness which reigned in the monster's 
 " belly." But to return to what is more par- 
 ticularly under consideration, let us see further 
 how the traditions of the primeval promise per- 
 sonified in Hercules, were connected with para- 
 dise. 
 
 It has been mentioned further back, that cer- 
 tain paradisaical tumuli were sometimes conse- 
 crated in honour of those divine heroes, who 
 had mythologically been supposed to have com- 
 bated with the serpent; and that trees were 
 planted upon them. Generally, these were two 
 in number, and stood in the centre of the para- 
 disos. At times, however, there was only one 
 tree, so placed, " in the midst," and on either 
 side of it a sacred s™\oe or pillar was set up, 
 while a serpent was coiled around the tree, as 
 we see the whole represented on many ancient 
 coins and medals. These s™\o* or pillars were 
 called Petrae Ambrosiae, or the amber stones, 
 being considered oracular; and, in process of 
 time,, tbey were often set up without the accom- 
 paniment of "the tree in the midst," though 
 
176 
 
 still connected with paradisaic memorials. The 
 heathen called every thing that denoted life 
 and immortality, ambrosial; and hence were 
 derived all their legends about ambrosia, which 
 was considered as the nourishment of their 
 deities, and of which, whosoever tasted, " would 
 " live for ever." * The Tree of Life in paradise 
 was herein symbolized; and it is remarkable 
 how Milton, # a careful observer of antiquity, 
 has made use of the term " amber." 
 
 Immortal amaranth, a flower which once 
 
 In paradise, fast by the Tree of Life, 
 
 Began to bloom ; but soon for man's offence 
 
 To heaven remov'd, where first it grew, there grows 
 
 And flowers aloft shading the fount of life; 
 
 And where the river of bliss thro' midst of heaven 
 
 Rolls o'er Elysian flowers her amber stream. 
 
 Hence the celebrated trees on the banks of the 
 Eridanus, or " the river of Eden," were said to 
 have distilled amber ; and these Petrae Ambro- 
 siaef were, in the same manner, in their origin, 
 intimately connected with traditions of para- 
 dise. Tyre, one of the oldest cities in the world, 
 
 * Paradise Lost, book iii. 353. Horn. Iliad II. 678. T. 39. 
 Gale's Court of the Gentiles, lib. iii. 4. Owen lib. iii. 8. 
 
 f Hence also, two remarkable rocks called the Cyaneae 
 Petrae, or Symplegades, at the mouth of the Euxine, which 
 had been probably high places, sacred to paradisaio memo- 
 
177 
 
 was supposed, in the beginning, to have been 
 founded upon two of these sacred stones;* 
 which, moreover, when represented with their 
 tree " in the midst," and the oracular serpent, 
 were peculiarly consecrated to the honour of 
 Hercules. One of those mentioned by Ptolemy 
 Hephaestion as situated on the borders of the 
 ocean, probably nearGades, (a Tyrian or Phoe- 
 nician colony) was called Petra Gigonia. It 
 was a rocking stone, (like that in Cornwall, 
 which is still called Main-amber) and could only 
 be moved, as the author just mentioned sup- 
 poses, by the touch of a plant named asphodel, 
 which was a herb of the same nature as ama- 
 ranth, and connected with the same paradisaical 
 traditions; for asphodel, according to that 
 excellent glossographer Hesychius, is only 
 
 rials were said to be " alive ;" Ai£v/zoi yap ccav ZQAI. 
 Pind. Pyth. iv. 372. For further accounts of the Symplegades 
 see Stat. v. 347. Strabo iii. 149. Hygin. Fab. xix. Ovid. 
 Metam. xv. 338. Plin. iv. 13. 
 
 * Imp. Rora. Num. Car. Pat. p. 270. There was a famous 
 temple at Tyre sacred to Hercules ; in the centre of which 
 were two columns, one of gold and the other of emerald; the 
 latter answering to the tree of emeralds " in the midst" of the 
 enclosure at Gades before mentioned. See Herodotus, Theo- 
 phrastus, and Pliny, as cited by the erudite author last 
 quoted. 
 
178 
 
 another term for paradise.* The title here given 
 to Hercules of Gigon, is probably derived from 
 one of the names of the rivers of Eden pnu 
 Gihon, pronounced with a gutteral Gichon, 
 whence Gigon, and Gigonia. The famous pil- 
 lars of Hercules may, perhaps, be traced up to 
 the same origin. But to turn to another hero ; 
 Cadmus appears to have been esteemed by 
 the Helladians one of the most famous charac- 
 ters in their early history. His arrival in Greece 
 was fixed on as the beginning of a new sera, 
 and through his means many important changes 
 were thought to have been effected. The ac- 
 counts we have of him are indeed very much 
 confused; but some extraordinary vestiges of 
 primeval truth will be discovered in their inves- 
 tigation. Some have considered him as having 
 been a Phoenician by birth ; but on the whole it 
 appears that this mythic personage (for of course 
 no such real hero ever existed) was derived 
 from Thebes in Egypt, the king of which coun- 
 try was Ogus or Ogen, which was in fact a 
 title of the river Nile, being a contraction of 
 
 * Hesychius et Snidas, vox aff<f>oh\oc According to the 
 latter, this plant was sacred to Proserpine and Diana; 
 whom the Rhodians crowned with it. See also Bryant, vol. 
 v. pp. 201—205. 
 
179 
 
 Oc-gehon, or the noble Gehon.* Cadmus is 
 described by Nonnusf as a shepherd playing 
 on a musical instrument and reclining under 
 the shade of an oak ; while the same powers 
 of harmony are given him as those attributed 
 to Orpheus, such as the rocks and forests fol- 
 lowing him, and the whole brute creation living 
 at perfect peace under his delightful influence. 
 He is said to have travelled over a large part 
 of the world, founding cities wherever he came, 
 and introducing the rites of religion intermin- 
 gled with many paradisaical memorials. He 
 instituted the sacred grove of the Academia, J 
 not far from Athens; which was a place of 
 exercise and science, beautifully planted with a 
 variety of trees, but particularly olives. These 
 were looked upon as very sacred, and the place 
 itself in ancient times was of so great sanctity, 
 that it was a profanation even to laugh there. 
 Near it was a sacred tower or temple, and at 
 
 * Eurip. Phceniss. v. 6. Schol. Nat. Comes, lib. viii. 23. 
 Apoll. Rhod. Schol. iii. L184, 1186. Concerning the doubts, 
 even of the ancients themselves, with regard to the history of 
 Cadmus as a real hero, see Pausan. ix. 734. 
 
 t KXtycic yetrovt viotov vtto APYI <\>opfia$OQ v\r]Q. Non , 
 Dionys. lib. i. pp. 32.-37. 
 
 X Selden de Diis Syr. cap. vi. Hoffman Academia. 
 Horn. Hist. Philos. lib. vii. iElian iii. 35. Schol. in Neph. 
 Arist. v. 1000. 
 
 N 
 
180 
 
 no great distance ran a stream called Eridanus,* 
 like that in Liguria, and both which are literally 
 " the river of Eden." He also founded Thebes, 
 where were the Beata? Insulae, or the " Islands 
 " of the Blessed," connected with the Tursis 
 and compound animal figure of the Sphinx, 
 also with traditions as to the nativity of the 
 God of heaven, all which may be considered 
 as so many traces of paradise. Here, more- 
 over, was a celebrated fountain, called Dirce, 
 doubtless in a sacred enclosure, but guarded, 
 as we are expressly informed, by a dreadful 
 serpent, which Cadmus, after a conflict, slew, 
 sowed the monster's teeth in the earth, and 
 when a numerous host of armed men arose, at 
 the suggestion of an oracle he cast a stone into 
 the midst of them, upon which they fell upon 
 and destroyed one another. It seems hard to 
 
 * Pausanias, Att, p. 45. Hpicavio rw KeXtlku) ovo/ia ex w ^' 
 It is clear that the name of the river, both in Liguria and 
 Greece, must have been derived through traditions imported 
 by colonies from Palestine, where the Adonis flowed by the 
 city of Biblus; for memorials of their origin were met with 
 near the banks of the Po, in the remains of extensive works, 
 called, even in the days of Pliny, Fossa Philistina, and 
 Fossiones Philistines. See Pliny, lib. iii. 16, cited by 
 Bryant, vol. i. pp. 376. — 377. Even in Greece, there was a 
 city called Palaeste, and a whole region styled Palestina. 
 Caesar. Bell. Civ. iii. 6. Lucan, Phars. v. 460. 
 
181 
 
 say that in all this history there must not have 
 been some intimation given, either by means of 
 tradition or otherwise, that the seed of the 
 serpent, as well as the serpent himself, would 
 be ultimately overthrown by the all-victorious 
 Deliverer, toward whom, this and some other 
 singular memorials, however obscurely, pointed. 
 Cadmus is, moreover, mentioned by Palaepha- 
 tus, as having been the conqueror of the serpent 
 at Lerna, # instead of Hercules: and at all 
 events, his connection with the primeval tradi- 
 tion is sufficiently manifest. Under another 
 aspect, we may see in him memorials of the 
 first ancestors of mankind. He is said to have 
 married . Harmonia, who is described as the 
 " mother of all living ;" and every deity was 
 supposed to have been present at their nuptials, 
 when each conferred some gift upon the bride, 
 in the same manner as the legend of Pandora 
 is related.f With her he is affirmed to have 
 lived in a state of perfect happiness for a long- 
 period ; when at last a reverse came ; they and 
 their family were involved in war, sorrow, and 
 trouble, and the whole history closes with their 
 being changed " into serpents." Cadmus, how- 
 ever, generally was worshipped as a god, and 
 
 * Palaeph. de Incred. p. 22. | Nat. Comes ut supra. 
 
182 
 
 he may therefore well be classed among the 
 number of those divine heroes, in whose cha- 
 racter and history the ancients personified the 
 great paradisaic promise, that "the seed of the 
 * woman should bruise the head of the serpent." 
 He was likewise the same as Hermes or Mer- 
 curius, and as such bore the Caduceus, or 
 Branch, * of the Tree of Life, with serpents 
 enfolded round it, and with which he opened 
 or shut the portals of Hades or Paradise. 
 
 Analogous to the legends of Cadmus, is the 
 history of a remarkable personage, named by 
 the Greeks Caanthus.f He is said to have 
 been the son of Oceanus, which, in the language 
 of Egypt, whence he came, is the same as 
 Oc-gehon, whence ayvyrjv Ogugen, and cikeclvog 
 
 * He was said to have been at the isle of Anaphe, which 
 was named Membliaros, after one of his followers ; but it 
 was also called Baia, as we have seen, from BAI, which, in 
 the Egyptian language, according to Salmasius (in Suicer's 
 Thesaur.) and others, signifies the Branch of the palm tree, 
 or Tree of Life, Hesych. vox. Bate- 1 Mac. xiii. 51. John 
 xii. 13. The " multitude, which no man can number," of 
 believers in the Revel, vii. 9, are represented as bearing in 
 their hands "palm-branches," the emblems of life and 
 immortality. See also Gale's Court of the Gentiles, part 1- 
 lib. ii. p. 152 and 290. The Roman triumphal robe, first 
 introduced by Tarquin from Etruria, was adorned with 
 figures of palm branches. See Anc. Univ. Hist. vol. xi. 
 p. 344. f Bryant vol. ii. 447. 
 
183 
 
 Oceanus. He travelled over many countries 
 in search of his sister Melia, who had been 
 stolen away, and whom he at length found 
 detained by Apollo in the sacred grove of 
 Ismenus. There was here also a fountain of 
 the same name, watched and guarded by a 
 tremendous serpent. Caanthus is affirmed to 
 have cast fire into this sacred recess, on which 
 account he was slain by Apollo. His taphos 
 or tomb was afterwards shewn by the Thebans 
 near the fountain ; and in short, the whole may 
 be considered as one of the paradisaic Tumuli 
 before mentioned, although the memorials are 
 somewhat confounded. 
 
 There is also another remarkable legend 
 alluded to by almost all the profane writers of 
 antiquity, and by some fully described ; I mean 
 the Argonautic expedition. Like the arrival 
 of Cadmus in Greece, it has been made to con- 
 stitute an epocha in mythology, and even history 
 itself. The whole, however, exhibits an instance 
 of the admixture of diluvian with paradisaic 
 memorials. The wandering voyage of the 
 Argo, which is said to have been the first ship 
 that ever sailed, evidently alludes to the erratic 
 state of the ark, when it floated on the surface 
 of the deluge. The fact, that traces of this 
 celebrated expedition are to be met with in so 
 
184 
 
 many different countries, the inhabitants of 
 which esteemed Jason a divine hero, and built 
 temples* to his honour, only proves how wide 
 the memorials both of Eden and the deluge 
 had spread, and adds further testimony to the 
 Mosaic account which represents all mankind 
 as originating from one common parent. At 
 present our attention need only be directed to 
 the memorials of paradise discoverable in the 
 Argonautic history. Athamas, the father of 
 Phrixus, who fled with the golden ram to Col- 
 chis, is reported to have lived in a happy state 
 of the utmost harmony with the brute creation, 
 a tradition of the state of the Protoplast in 
 Eden, similar to that related of Orpheus, Cad- 
 mus, Amphion, and others. A sad reverse of 
 circumstances however followed. The country 
 around Thebes, where Athamas reigned, be- 
 came the scene of famine and sterility; the 
 earth refused to produce her accustomed fruits, 
 and " the ground was cursed." In this tremen- 
 dous catastrophe an oracle declared, that it 
 was necessary " a proper victim should be 
 " sacrificed to the deity in order to appease his 
 " anger," and Phrixus, the only son of king 
 
 * Nat. Com. lib. vi. 8. Also the Analysis by Bryant of 
 the Argonautic Expedition, passim. Hygin. Fab. ii. and iii. 
 
185 
 
 Athamas, on hearing this, is said "to have 
 " willingly offered himself." However, in the 
 sequel, this golden ram was offered up in his 
 stead as a propitiatory atonement, and its fleece 
 suspended on an oak in the midst of a grove 
 or sacred enclosure, consecrated to Mars, which 
 was situated on the banks of the river Phasis 
 or Phison. This garden was moreover guarded 
 by bulls with brazen horns and hoofs, breathing 
 flames from their nostrils ; and within its pre- 
 cincts dwelt a sleepless serpent, who for ever 
 watched the consecrated tree in the centre of 
 the paradisos. Jason, in order, as it was ima- 
 gined, to recover the fleece, combated and 
 overcame the monster. He then married a 
 woman named Medea, daughter of the king of 
 the country, in whose company he carried off 
 the prize, after having sown in the earth the 
 teeth of the serpent he had slain, from which, 
 when a host of armed warriors arose, they 
 were all destroyed as in the case of Cadmus. 
 Indeed, some authors affirm that these teeth 
 were some of the very serpent which that hero 
 slew at Thebes, which remarkably identifies 
 the memorials as being derived from one and 
 the same origin. Thus far these remarkable 
 traditions require no comment, as being plainly 
 of the same nature as many others before men- 
 
186 
 
 tioned, allusive to that general idea prevalent 
 among all nations, that some divine personage 
 would in the fulness of time arise (or as they 
 thought, from the promulgation of the promise 
 in paradise, had already arisen) to overthrow 
 and trample under foot the foul seducer of 
 mankind. The fiery compound figures who 
 guarded the grove must have been borrowed 
 from obscure traditionary representations of 
 the " Cherubim and flaming sword," on the 
 east of Eden ; and indeed the whole scene of 
 these wonderful transactions is represented by 
 Mimnermus, an ancient poet,* as lying in a 
 region, where was the chamber of the sun, and 
 the dawn of day, at the extremities of the 
 eastern world. 
 
 It has been remarked that an admixture of 
 traditions relating to two events of very diffe- 
 rent periods, is discoverable in the Argonautic 
 history. This will further appear from the 
 circumstance of the mast of the ship Argo 
 being thought to have been constructed out of 
 one of those two celebrated trees which grew in 
 the midst of the grove of Dodona, and hence 
 
 * Airjrao no\iv t toQl t'iokeoq rjeXwio 
 Aktiveq j(pvffeo> keicltcli ev daXafxio 
 QtKEavv napa ^eiXeq , iv ioketo deiog Irfviov. 
 
 Mimnerm. ap. Strabon. lib. i. p. 80. 
 
187 
 
 it was considered oracular ; and as the tree of 
 knowledge, even delivered oral directions to 
 the Argonauts. Moreover, the return of this 
 vessel is affirmed by some to have been by way 
 of the Eridanus, or " river of Eden," so that in 
 the whole account we have more than one 
 allusion to the stream of paradise " parting into 
 " four heads," mentioned by Moses.* 
 
 There is yet another light in which Jason 
 may be viewed, such is the confusion universally 
 attendant upon these traditionary memorials: 
 for he may, as to some parts of his mythic 
 character, be considered as symbolizing the 
 parent of the human race. Like Adam, he 
 took away from a tree which grew in the midst 
 of a sacred garden, xP Vff£oy /*»?W, which may be 
 rendered either a golden ram, or a golden apple, 
 like the forbidden fruit of the garden of the 
 Hesperides. In his flight with this wonderful 
 prize, it becomes the source of many crimes of 
 the blackest die, and what is very remarkable, 
 even of the murder, by Medea, of her brother ; 
 probably a memorial of the murder by Cain of 
 Abel, for both Jason and Medea, but more 
 especially the latter, are exhibited as driven 
 
 * Ovid. Metam. vi. and vii. Hygin ut supra, et Fab. xiii. 
 xix. xxii. Valer. Flac. Argon. Apoll. Rhod. Orph. Argo- 
 naut, et al. Mythog. Script, passim. 
 
188 
 
 from place to place over the face of the whole 
 earth! Moreover, the oracular mast of the 
 Argo, connected, as has been shewn, with tra- 
 ditions of the tree of knowledge, became ulti- 
 mately the death of Jason, by crushing him 
 with its fall. 
 
 We find that all these divine heroes were 
 supposed to have been the founders of various 
 cities, and especially those of the greatest note 
 and antiquity, such as Troy, Thebes, and other 
 places ; in all of which will be discovered the 
 usual sacred symbol of " the tree in the midst," 
 connected also with the mythic tradition of a 
 victory over the serpent. Athens presents 
 another instance of this kind, in the circum- 
 stances connected with the history of her first 
 king Cecrops.* He is represented as a mighty 
 personage, in whose time a wonderful tree 
 sprang up in the midst of a sacred enclosure, 
 at the command of Minerva. This tree was 
 an olive, the emblem of knowledge, and it was 
 also called by a particular title, which denoted 
 death,f as there were traditions connected with 
 
 * Diod. Sic. i. 28. Ovid. Metam. ii. 555. Justin ii. 6. 
 Pausan. Att. 24. Plutarch in Them. p. 87. Varro ap. 
 August. Civ. Dei. xviii. 9. 
 
 t MopOQ (f)OVOQ, ddVCLTOQ, (j)0opOS, 7T0V0S, VOffOQ, fiOtpCt TH 
 
 fiiov. — Hesych. 
 
 The Pelopennesus at this day is called the Morea. 
 
189 
 
 it of the dissolution of the son of a deity. 
 Cecrops also overcame a serpent, was reported 
 to have been the first institutor of sacrifices, 
 and the author of marriage ; one of the rites of 
 which was, that the man and woman should 
 partake of an apple. He was moreover de- 
 clared to have been buried on the Acropolis, 
 once denominated from him, Cecropia ; and 
 near the foot of it was a temple of Apollo and 
 Pan, on the north side in a sacred cave or 
 grotto, where were most probably certain sym- 
 bolic stones or Kwveq similar to the Ambrosiae 
 Petrae before mentioned ; for the name of the 
 place was called Maicpai Uerpat Macrae Petrae, 
 or KsKpoTriat Uerpai Cecropiae Petrae. There were 
 games also established, in which the conqueror 
 was crowned with the leaves of the sacred 
 olive, which grew in the midst of the Aca- 
 demia.* 
 
 * Potter's Archael. Graec. vol. i. p. 35, and the verses from 
 Euripides there cited. The Athenians, moreover, always 
 boasted that they derived their origin from the first of man- 
 kind; and that their city was the first place in the world 
 which was ever inhabited. In commemoration of this they 
 wore golden grasshoppers in their hair, perhaps alluding 
 obscurely to the uninterrupted serenity of the paradisaical 
 climate. Athens had also the title of Omphalos. Dion. 
 Hal. de. Verb. Comp. torn. ii. pp. 23, 24, et pp. 145—173. 
 
190 
 
 The same remarks may be applied to the 
 ancient history of the foundation of Rome, and 
 its early kings. The reader of Dionysius Hali- 
 carnasseus cannot but be struck with the 
 various vestiges of paradisaic memorial which 
 appear throughout the whole. # Romulus was 
 exposed at the foot of a sacred tree, which 
 seems represented as having been in the centre 
 of a consecrated grove or garden. The pala- 
 tine hill had an asylum before alluded to 
 between two groves of oaks, or, according to 
 some, between two trees, which is more likely. 
 He is described, though obscurely, as having 
 been the author of the institution of marriage 
 
 * Dion. Halic. Ant. lib. i. pp. 12, 13, 16, 44, 48, 52, lib. x. 
 p. 649. In pages 54 and 55 of the first book, there is a 
 curious mention made of a very ancient temple at Rome, not 
 far from the forum, vulgarly said to be '* YII EAAIAIS under 
 "the Olives;" wherein images of the Trojan and Cabiric 
 deities were worshipped, under an inscription AENAE, which 
 the historian imagines to have meant Penates, but with the 
 prefix of one letter only (and that one very likely to have 
 been dropped in course of time) it would read EAENA2, 
 denoting a Temple of Eden, like that mentioned in Amos i. 5, 
 p# n»2 Beth-Eden. See also of the same book, as to the 
 birth of Romulus and Remus, page 65. For an account of 
 the Asylum, lib. ii. p. 88. Also of an Asylum sacred to 
 Diana, on the Aventine, lib. iv. p. 230. Orig. Rom. Gent. 
 ex Vet. Auct. Coll. p. 779. 
 
191 
 
 amongst his people. He is said, also, after 
 having gained a great victory, to have set up a 
 Tpoiraiov or trophy, so named from Tor-ope-on, 
 the tower or temple sacred to the worship of 
 the solar serpent. This trophy consisted of 
 the consecrated trunk of a tree (generally an 
 oak) set up in the midst of an enclosure, and 
 adorned with the arms of the conquered enemy. 
 What is remarkable here, is, that these arms 
 were termed "spolia opima," as Festus de- 
 clares, from Ops, which is the contraction of 
 (tyte or Opis, the serpent ! The title of the rock 
 on which the capitol stood was derived from 
 the same source ; Tarpeius being from Tor-ope, 
 the temple of the serpent deity. It may in fact 
 be doubted whether the history of the first 
 seven monarchs of this great city is not alto- 
 gether legendary, or at least mainly founded 
 upon certain symbolic memorials. 
 
 Such are a few specimens of the manner in 
 which the traditions of the great paradisaic 
 promise, were preserved by the heathen poste- 
 rity of the common father of mankind. Imme- 
 diately on the fall, we are told that, "unto 
 " Adam and his wife did the Lord God make 
 " coats of skins, and clothed them ;" which 
 was surely a typical action, and must have been 
 full of important meaning, since these skins 
 
192 
 
 were doubtless those of animals slain in sacri- 
 fice. Memorials, moreover, of this solemn rite, 
 prevailed to some considerable extent through- 
 out the Gentile world. We have seen how 
 Jacob consulted the sacred oracle at Beershe- 
 bah previous to his going down into Egypt. 
 Here was the sacred . grove which Abraham 
 had planted, and when Israel had offered the 
 appointed sacrifices, God vouchsafed him an 
 answer " in the visions of the night;" and just 
 in the same manner many of the heathen con- 
 sulted some of their false oracles, preserving 
 the memory of the paradisaical rite derived to 
 them by tradition. Thus, those who applied to 
 the oracle of Amphiaraus, were first to purify 
 themselves by general sacrifices, then to fast 
 for twenty-four hours, and abstain three days 
 from wine and their wives. After all this was 
 done, a ram was offered, and the offerer lying 
 down, clothed in the skin of the victim, waited 
 in that posture for the response of the oracle. 
 The same rites also existed in Apulia Daunia 
 at the tomb and grove of Podalirius, where the 
 victims used in sacrifice were the choicest of 
 the flock. These oracles were held in high 
 esteem, and near the temple of Amphiaraus was 
 a famous fountain, out of which he was said to 
 have ascended up into heaven, when he was 
 
193 
 
 received into the number of the gods. Its 
 waters were held so sacred, that it was a capital 
 crime to apply them to any ordinary purpose; 
 and what was very remarkable, instead of 
 offering sacrifices to this, as to other fountains, 
 all those who recovered from any disease, cast 
 a piece of gold or silver into the waters as a 
 sort of redemption price, which custom, as 
 Pausanias assures us, was very ancient indeed, 
 and derived from the primitive ages.* Reli- 
 gious customs, nearly similar, were practised at 
 Traezen, and the classical reader will remember 
 the grove and sacred lake of Fannus in Italy, 
 described in Virgil : — 
 
 At rex sollicitus monstris, oracula Fauni 
 Fatidici genitoris adit, lucosque sub alta 
 Consulit Albunea nemorum quae maxima sacro 
 Fonte sonat, saevamque exhalat opaca Mephitim. 
 Hinc Italae gentes, omnisque iEnotria tellus 
 In dubiis respousa petunt. Hue dona sacerdos 
 Cum tulit et casarum ovium sub nocte silenti 
 Pellibus incubuit stratis, somnosque petivit, 
 Multa modis simulacra videt volitantia miris 
 Et varias audit voces, fruiturque Deorum 
 Colloquio, atque imis Acheronta affatur Avernis.f 
 
 * Philost. de Vit. Apoll. lib. ii. 134. Lye. Cassand. v. 1050. 
 Valer. Max. lib. viii. 15. Herod, lib. i. 46. Pausan. in 
 Atticis. v 
 
 t Virg. JEneid. vii. 81— -91. 
 
194 
 
 The whole description is that of a paradi- 
 saical oracular grove, with its temple, fountain, 
 and sacred lake, like those before alluded to. 
 This lake I have frequently visited myself, and 
 it answers exactly to the account given of the 
 one called Cotyle, mentioned by Dionysius, 
 Pliny, Varro, Macrobius, and other authors. 
 It is of immense depth, with its surface spotted 
 with a bituminous matter, which, mixing with 
 weeds and other vegetable substances, fre- 
 quently forms floating islands ; and it may be 
 worth mentioning, that Lavinia, respecting 
 whose fate Latinus is represented in the iEneid 
 to have consulted this oracle, in the manner 
 described, was considered by some as having 
 been the daughter of Anius, king and priest of 
 Delos ;* so that these memorials found in 
 different places, may be certainly looked upon 
 as having reference to one and the same pri- 
 meval history. We also perceive in the above 
 account of this oracular grove of Faunus, that 
 the offerer,! tying down, as it were, "clothed 
 "in the coats or skins of the victims slain," 
 beheld many wonderful compounded winged 
 
 * Dionyss. Hal. Ant. lib. i. p. 48. 
 
 t The same rite appears to have been practised by the 
 Romans at the Feast of the Lupercal. 
 
195 
 
 forms, (referring to the memorials of the Che- 
 rubim represented under the semblance of 
 compound animal figures) and enjoyed in 
 visions of the night that supposed communion 
 with God, which may be considered as a tradi- 
 tionary vestige of the blissful intercourse once 
 prevailing in the garden of Eden, between man 
 and his Maker. Virgil,* who was an exact 
 observer of antiquity, also mentions the rite of 
 " clothing in the skins of the sacrifices," as 
 having long been practised among the priests of 
 Hercules, " pellibus in morem cincti." 
 
 The most remarkable instance, however, of 
 all, was the temple of the Syrian Goddessf at 
 Hierapolis. It was a splendid structure, front- 
 ing eastward, with a portal glittering with 
 golden doors, and adorned in the interior with 
 various representations of heathen deities of 
 compound figures, with the forms of animals 
 amongst them : the figure of the celestial 
 Venus, in particular, had a Lychnis by her 
 side, which by night illuminated the whole 
 temple, but in the day time only wore a fiery 
 aspect. It was reported of this statue, that 
 though a person stood either on one side, or 
 
 * iEneid. viii. 282. 
 
 t Lucian. de Dea Syria, torn. ii. pp. 875—915. 
 O 
 
196 
 
 before it, still it looked at him. The atmo- 
 sphere round the temple was said to be enchant- 
 ing, and not inferior to the sweetest perfumes 
 of Arabia, insomuch that the garments of all 
 who visited it remained scented for a consider- 
 able time. Within the sacred enclosure were 
 kept oxen, horses, lions, bears, eagles, and all 
 kinds of birds and animals, which lived together 
 in the greatest harmony, being in no way hurtful 
 even to man, but all sacred and tame. In the 
 midst of this enclosure stood a lofty column, 
 which was ascended twice a year by a person 
 who remained on its summit seven days ; while 
 it was given out that during this sabbatic week 
 he enjoyed the communion of the deity ; and 
 that the thing was done in memory of Deuca- 
 lion's flood, when mankind clomb up trees* to 
 prevent their perishing. This column was 
 indeed connected with a memorial of certain 
 trees, but had its origin in a transaction far 
 prior to the period of the deluge. In fact it 
 was in itself either a tree or the symbol of one; 
 
 * They would hardly climb up trees in a deluge, but 
 rather ascend the highest rocks and mountains. The 
 column, however, here mentioned, was doubtless looked 
 upon as a Priapus ; for the connection of the original tradi- 
 tion with the institution of marriage, was desecrated to all the 
 abominations of the phallic mysteries. 
 
197 
 
 and Lucian, in his account to explain the me- 
 thod of ascent, alludes to the palm tree. It 
 stood, however, " in the midst," and was per- 
 haps not unconnected with another religious 
 observance prevalent at Hierapolis. Every 
 spring, an extraordinary sacrifice was celebrated ; 
 for felling some great trees in the court of the 
 temple, they garnished them with goats, sheep, 
 birds, rich vestments, and fine pieces of wrought 
 gold and silver : they then carried the sacred 
 images round these trees, and set fire to them, 
 until all was consumed. At this sacrifice there 
 was a great concourse of people from all parts, 
 every one bringing his sacred images with him, 
 made in imitation of those in the temjje. There 
 was also a private sacrifice made by the per- 
 sons who undertook the pilgrimage to this city 
 of Hierapolis. The pilgrim killed a sheep, cut 
 it up in joints, and feasted on it, spreading the 
 fleece on the ground and kneeling upon it. 
 In this posture, the offerer put the feet and head 
 of the victim upon his own head,* and thus 
 besought the deity to accept him, and his sacri- 
 fice, vowing at the sam^ time a better. The 
 priests also practised human sacrifices, crowning 
 
 * To C£ vukoq X a ^ fa 0ef*£*'O£t £7ri tuto eg yovv e'Cerai 7ro£ac 
 Ce. tcai Ke<f>a\r)v r« Krrjveos etti rrjv eavra tcecpaXrjv avaXafifiavei. 
 Lucian. do Dea Syr. p, 913. 
 
198 
 
 the victims with garlands, and then driving 
 them out of the court of the temple, one side 
 of which was an abrupt steep, where, falling 
 down, they miserably perished. Infants, shock- 
 ing to relate, were often offered, being tied up 
 in sacks, and thrown over the precipice, in the 
 same manner as was done from some of the 
 rocks and high places called Acheron, before 
 mentioned. 
 
 Adjacent to the temple was a sacred lake 
 two hundred fathoms in depth, as the priests 
 reported ; and in the midst of it was an altar of 
 stone, which, when looked at suddenly, seemed 
 to swim like a floating island, as most, in fact, 
 actually supposed it did; for the pillar, or 
 whatever else supported it, was not easily to be 
 discerned.* This floating altar or island, was 
 always crowned, and smoking with incense; 
 for every day many people swam to it, and 
 there performed their devotions. It is unneces- 
 sary, after what has been advanced, to run a 
 formal parallel between this extraordinary tem- 
 ple, and the many others which have been 
 mentioned. The usual features of paradisaical 
 
 * The existence of the pillar underneath is the supposition 
 of Lucian himself, who was sufficiently acute in penetrating 
 into the arts of the pagan hierophants. E/xoi h Sokeei (ttvXoq 
 £0££€W£ fieyaQt ayc^eiv top fiu>nov, Lucian de Dea Syr. p. 908. 
 
199 
 
 memorial, with an admixture also of diluvian 
 traditions, are plainly discoverable to every 
 attentive reader. There was a celebrated oracle 
 in the temple, where responses were given by 
 the Syrian Apollo. 
 
 Another instance of the Gentile rite of " cloth- 
 " ing in skins," we have in the Bacchanalia, 
 when the frantic votaries of Dionusus appeared 
 everywhere like persons distracted, "clad in 
 " the skins of fawns." These were followed by 
 noble virgins, bearing golden baskets filled with 
 fruit, in which consisted the " most mysterious 
 " part of the solemnity." In the baskets were 
 serpents, which, sometimes crawling out, struck 
 the beholders with astonishment ; while in the 
 mean time the whole multitude joined in re- 
 iterated exclamations of " Eva! Eva!" A learned 
 living author has well shewn, how the whole of 
 this remarkable festival appears to have been a 
 scenical representation of the fall of our first 
 parents.* 
 
 The custom at Hierapolis of immolating 
 infants, has been alluded to, and we may now 
 take some notice of the extent to which this 
 horrid rite prevailed in other places. There is 
 an affecting passage in the iEneid which seems 
 
 * Faber. Hor. Mos. vol. i. p. 96. 
 
200 
 
 to mention the practice; when Virgil conducts 
 his hero over the sacred rivers, into the Hades 
 of the heathen, which has been shewn to have 
 been composed of paradisaical memorials : 
 
 Continuo anditae voces, vagitus et ingens 
 Infantumque animae flentes in limine primo, 
 Quos dulcis vitae exsortes, et ab ubere raptos 
 Abstulit atra dies, et funere mersit acerbo.* 
 
 The rite seems to have arisen from an idea 
 the ancients had of the superior purity of an 
 infant, which rendered it in their eyes a fitter 
 subject than any other to be offered up by way 
 of atonement. The origin of this idea must 
 have been in the diabolical corruption of those 
 traditions which pointed to the one great victim, 
 who, in the fulness of time, would offer up him- 
 self as a propitiation for sin, being indeed the 
 " Child born, and the Son given," who should 
 avert the righteous anger of an offended God. 
 It is scarce credible, however, how common 
 the custom was; and it wonderfully evinces 
 the general view entertained of the necessity of 
 some sacrifice, which should take away sin. 
 Silius Italicus, speaking of the Carthaginians, 
 
 * iEneid vi. 426: 
 
201 
 
 mentions it as existing amongst them, from the 
 earliest antiquity : — 
 
 Mos erat in populis quos condidit advena Dido 
 Poscere caede Deos veniam, et flagrantibus aris 
 Infandum dictu, parvos imponere natos,* 
 
 The reason assigned, is strikingly expressed. 
 It was to " seek for pardon from the gods by 
 " the shedding of blood ;" and they unhappily 
 conceived that the purest and most acceptable 
 they could offer, was that of the objects nearest 
 and dearest to them. The Carthaginians were 
 a colony from Tyre, and probably from thence 
 it was that they brought so barbarous a custom. 
 The nations of Canaan were guilty of it in a 
 peculiar degree, and seem, from the sacred 
 writings, to have enticed the people of God 
 into an imitation of the bloody rite. " They 
 " did not destroy the nations concerning whom 
 " the Lord commanded them ; but were min- 
 " gled among the heathen, and learned their 
 " works ; yea, they sacrificed their sons and 
 " their daughters unto devils, and shed inno- 
 " cent blood, even the blood of their sons and 
 " their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto 
 "the idols of Canaan; and the land was 
 
 *Sil. Ital. iv. 766. 
 
202 
 
 "polluted with blood."* The most terrible 
 instance recorded of this custom among the 
 Carthaginians, was when their army had been 
 defeated by Agathocles, and they immediately 
 supposed that the calamity had befallen them 
 through the anger of Cronus, to appease whose 
 wrath, no less than two hundred children of 
 the prime nobility were sacrificed in public as 
 an atonement for the people. f The Phoeni- 
 cians, also, besides their more ordinary and 
 common immolations to Moloch, who was the 
 same as Saturn or Cronus, had certain seasons 
 in every year, when children were chosen out of 
 the most noble and reputable families, for the 
 tremendous purpose above described. J Justin 
 the historian describes this unnatural custom 
 in a manner truly touching ; and so many 
 authors, both ancient and modern, have men- 
 tioned it, as well as human sacrifices in general, 
 that it appears hardly necessary to bring for- 
 ward more instances here than those which 
 have been so often adduced. § Two, however, 
 
 * Psalm cvi. 34. 
 
 t Diodor. Sic. xx. 756. 
 
 X Philo. apud Euseb. 5*rep. Evang. iv. 16. 
 
 § Justin, lib. xviii. 6—226. The reader will find, if he is 
 desirous of pursuing the subject further, an immense mass of 
 valuable matter collected by Bryant, vol. vi. pp. 295—321. 
 
203 
 
 it will not be right to omit. The first is that 
 fearful one mentioned in scripture, when the 
 king of Moab, to avert a calamity, " took his 
 " eldest son that should have reigned in his 
 " stead, and offered him for a burnt offering 
 " upon the wall." The other shall be that of 
 the great " mystical offering," as it was called, 
 which we are told existed as a religious rite of 
 the greatest importance and solemnity among 
 the Phoenicians : and this cannot be laid before 
 the reader, in a more interesting form, than that 
 which the late analyst of ancient mythology has 
 given it. After having shewn that the most 
 approved sacrifices among the Phoenicians were 
 those of men, yet that even among these they 
 made a difference, and some were in greater 
 repute than others, he proceeds to tell us, that 
 the greatest refinement in these cruel rites was, 
 when the prince of the country, or a chief per- 
 son in any city, brought an only son to the altar, 
 and there slaughtered him by way of atone- 
 ment, to avert any evil from the nation at large. 
 
 Abp. Magee has also increased the number of authorities on 
 these painfully interesting subjects in his inestimable work on 
 the atonement. It is remarkable, in what a large proportion 
 of cases, these inhuman sacrifices were connected with grove 
 and garden worship in every part of the world. 
 
204 
 
 This last was properly the mystical sacrifice. 
 We are informed that the custom was instituted 
 in consequence of an example exhibited by 
 Cronus, who is said to have been a god, and 
 likewise a king of the country. It appears that 
 this deity was called by the Phoenicians, II; 
 and in other places he is spoken of as the prin- 
 cipal god. He had by the nymph Anobret one 
 only son, who for that reason was called Jeoud, 
 which in the language of Phoenicia expresses 
 that circumstance. This son, in a time of great 
 danger, either from war or pestilence, Cronus 
 is said to have arrayed in a royal vesture, and 
 to have led him thus habited to an altar, which 
 he had constructed, and there sacrificed him 
 for the public weal, to his father Ouranus. Such 
 is the history, in which, if there be no more 
 meant, than that a king of the country sacri- 
 ficed his son, and that the people afterwards 
 copied his example, it is an instance of a cruel 
 precedent too blindly followed ; but it contains 
 in it nothing of a mystery. When a fact is 
 supposed to have a mystical reference, there 
 should be something more than a bare imita- 
 tion. Cronus is said to be the same as 11, 
 which is the identical name with the El of the 
 Hebrews; and according to St. Jerome, was 
 
205 
 
 one of the ten titles of the true God.* II, or 
 El, was the same as Elioun, who is termed by 
 Sanchoniathon, " the most high/' He had no 
 one superior or antecedent to himself, as may 
 be proved from the same author. Cronus, 
 therefore, could not, according to the principles 
 of the very people appealed to, have sacrificed 
 his son to his father; for he was himself the 
 chief and original deity, and had no one above 
 him to whom he could make such an offering. 
 Ouranus, to whom he is erroneously thought 
 to have exhibited this sacrifice, is the same as 
 II, or El, and Elioun ; being another title of the 
 same person. Thus it is clear who the deity 
 was, whom the Phoenicians are supposed to 
 have copied in this particular; and that nothing 
 could have preceded for them to imitate, but 
 that what they did was a type and representation 
 of something to come. It is the only instance in 
 the Gentile world of any sacrifice which is said 
 to be mystical; and it is attended with circum- 
 stances which are very extraordinary. Cronus, 
 we find, was the same as El, and Elioun; and 
 he is termed y^iotoq The Most High, and 
 Y^ovpavLog The Most Heavenly. He is more- 
 over said to have had the Elohim for his 
 
 * Hieron. Epist. ad Marcellam, 136. 
 
206 
 
 coadjutors : he had no father to make any 
 offering to, for he was the father of ail, and 
 acknowledged as Kvpwg Ovpava The Lord of 
 Heaven, by the confession of the author, by 
 whom the account is given. These sacrifices, 
 therefore, had no reference to any thing past, 
 but alluded to a great event to be accomplished 
 afterwards. They were instituted probably in 
 consequence of a prophetic tradition, which 
 had been perhaps preserved in the family of 
 Esau, and transmitted through his posterity to 
 the people of Canaan. The mystical sacrifice 
 of the Phoenicians had these requisites, that a 
 prince was to offer it, and his only son was to be 
 the victim : and as it has been shewn that this 
 could not relate to any thing prior, let us consi- 
 der what is said upon the subject as future, 
 and attend to the consequence. For if the 
 sacrifice of the Phoenicians was a type of another 
 to come, the nature of this last will be known 
 from the representation, by which it was prefi- 
 gured. According to this, El, or //, the 
 supreme deity, whose associates were the Elo- 
 him, was in process of time to have a son, 
 ayaTnjrov, well beloved, fiovoyevri, his only begotten; 
 who was to be conceived and born of Anobret, 
 which, according to Bochart, signifies of grace ^ 
 or, according to another interpretation, of the 
 
207 
 
 fountain of light. He was to be called Jeoud, 
 whatever that name may relate to ; and to be 
 offered up as a sacrifice to his father, Xvrpoy by 
 way of satisfaction and redemption, npupoiQ Saifxoai, 
 to atone for the sins of others, and avert the 
 
 just Vengeance of God; avn rrjg ttclvtwv (pdopag to 
 
 prevent universal corruption, and at the same 
 time general ruin. And it is further remarkable, 
 he was to make this grand sacrifice /WtXu-w axn^n 
 KEKovfievos invested ivith the emblems of royalty. 
 These, surely, are very strong expressions; and 
 the whole is an aggregate of circumstances 
 highly significant, which cannot be the result 
 of chance. Certainly, therefore, this mystical 
 sacrifice was typical of something to come ; and 
 how truly it corresponds with that to which it 
 is imagined to allude, must be submitted to the 
 reader's judgment. It must necessarily be 
 esteemed, at all events, a most wonderful piece 
 of history.* 
 
 I would just observe, further, that in this 
 
 * Bryant, vol. vi. 323—333. See further, Bochart, Can. 
 ". 2. p. 790. Vossius de Orig. et Prog. Idol. i. 18. 143. 
 Huet. Dem. Evang. p. 116. The three last learned authors 
 all acknowledge the traces of the celebrated Abrahamic 
 offering, Gen. xxii. Gale may be also consulted with great 
 advantage. 
 
208 
 
 account of the mystical sacrifice, there appear 
 manifest vestiges of the offering made on Mount 
 Moriah, by the father of the Hebrew nation ; 
 and which, as is well known, exhibited a won- 
 derful type of the propitiatory atonement there- 
 after made, not far from the same site, by the 
 Son of God. This indeed shone as a star of 
 the first magnitude, if the allusion may be 
 allowed, in the night of the old dispensation, 
 before it gave way to the rising glories of the 
 Sun of Righteousness. So extraordinary a 
 transaction, however, as that of the Patriarch 
 being about to offer up as a sacrifice his only 
 son as a symbol of Him who was to be after 
 the flesh, " of the seed of the woman and bruise 
 ?? the serpent's head," must have excited consi- 
 derable attention in the country where Abraham 
 was then sojourning ; and accordingly, we find 
 in the history just given of the great Phoenician 
 rite, that the prince* who was erroneously sup- 
 posed to have instituted it, also enforced upon 
 his followers, as well as performed on himself, 
 the painful ordinance of circumcision; more- 
 over, that his only son whom he offered up was 
 
 * Abraham himself is mentioned as a " prince who reigned 
 " at Damascus," by Nicholas Dam. ap. Joseph. Ant. Jud. 
 i. 7. 
 
209 
 
 called Jeoud,* which is precisely the same as 
 the Hebrew in' Jehid, the very word used by 
 Moses, when he describes God as saying to 
 Abraham, "Take now thy son, thy Jehid or 
 " Jeoud, i. e. thine only son, whom thou lovest, 
 "and get thee into the land of Moriah, and 
 " offer him there for a burnt offering upon one 
 \\ of the mountains which I will tell thee of." 
 This only son was born, according to the 
 ancient tradition, of a nymph called Anobret, 
 or (according to the Phoenician name) Anno- 
 beret, which is, by interpretation " conceiving 
 " by grace," as the learned Bochart has inge- 
 niously shewn; referring evidently to the mother 
 of Isaac, who "received strength to conceive 
 " seed," and bare unto Abraham the child of 
 promise. It should also not be omitted, that 
 Porphyry, cited by Eusebius, mentions the 
 name of the king who instituted, as they ima- 
 gined, the mystical sacrifice, which was no 
 other than that of Israel, which he further says, 
 was a title conferred after his death on one of 
 the planets. There is indeed a difference of 
 
 * Jeotid may possibly have some reference to Judah, the 
 name of the patriarch and tribe from whom the Messiah was 
 more immediately to derive his human descent. " For Judah 
 " prevailed over his brethren, and of him came the chief 
 " ruler." 1 Chron. v. 2. Gen. xlix. 8. 
 
210 
 
 opinion as to the genuineness of the reading in 
 this passage, though Scaliger and Stillingfleet 
 both seem to think it correct.* 
 
 In concluding our remarks upon the tradi- 
 tions extant amongst the Gentiles, of the para- 
 disaic promise, it may be well to notice some 
 curious symbols and other representative cus 
 toms not before mentioned. There are two 
 remarkable representations very common in 
 India, of a deity entitled Chrishna, in one of 
 which the god is seen in the act of suffering 
 under the attacks of a deadly serpent, which 
 entirely enfolds him in its convolutions and 
 bites him in the heel. The other delineation, 
 however, exhibits Chrishna as triumphant over 
 the dreadful reptile, and actually crushing its 
 head.f Hindoostan was peopled by the de- 
 scendants of Ham, J and through him must 
 
 *Euseb. Prep. Evan. i. 10, 30, and 40. iv. 1G. 142. 
 Bryant vol. vi. 325. Grot, in Deut. xviii. 10. Huet. Bochart. 
 Voss. ut supra. Scaliger. Fragm. p. 48. Stillingfleet Orig. 
 Sac. Hi. 5. 407. 
 
 t The plates representing this tradition may be seen in the 
 volume of Fragments to Calmet's Dictionary. 
 
 X Whom the ancients sometimes called Indus, whence the 
 name of that vast river was derived, which gives its appella- 
 tion to the whole Indian continent. Bryant vol. iv. 280. The 
 Tigris was once called the Indus, a title connected, as we 
 have seen, with the paradisaical Phison. 
 
211 
 
 have doubtless preserved the antediluvian tradi- 
 tions of the all-important promise, thus allego- 
 rically represented ; " I will put enmity between 
 " thee (the serpent) and the woman, and be- 
 " tween thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise 
 " thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel."* 
 
 There was a remarkable festival among the 
 Babylonians and Persians, attended with a very 
 particular sacrifice. They took one of those 
 prisoners who were condemned to death, seated 
 him on the throne of the king, clothed him in 
 royal raiment, and surrounding him for several 
 days with all the attendants and luxury of a 
 sovereign, suffered no one during that time to 
 hinder him from doing whatever he wished ; 
 but after all this, they stript him, scourged him, 
 and then fastened him to a cross ! The whole 
 of this extraordinary ceremony is described by 
 Dio Chrysostom, and was called the festival of 
 the Saccae.f 
 
 To this may be added the passage from 
 Plato, cited by Grotius,J where the Grecian 
 
 * Gen. Hi. 15. 
 
 t Orat. iv. de Regno. Athenaeusx iv. 10, and the Notes of Ca- 
 saubon. Bryant also mentions the above in a note, vol. vi. 333. 
 
 J Grot, de Ver. Rel. Christ, iv. 12. note 12. Plato de Rep. 
 lib. ii. p. 50. The whole of this second book of the Republic 
 is well worthy attention. 
 
 P 
 
212 
 
 philosopher, who had doubtless derived his 
 ideas on the subject from Egypt, says, that in 
 order to exhibit the character of a man perfectly 
 just, it is necessary that his virtue should be 
 stripped of all external recommendations, so 
 that by others he should be reckoned a wicked 
 person, should be " mocked, scourged, tortured, 
 " bound, have both his eyes burnt out; and at 
 " last, having suffered all kinds of evil, be cut 
 " in pieces," as a sacrifice, or as some think the 
 Greek word signifies, "be hungup, ox crucified'' 
 The Athenians, we are told by the scholiast* 
 on Aristophanes, " kept some very mean and 
 " useless persons, and in the time of any general 
 " calamity, sacrificed them, in order to purify 
 " themselves from pollution." The same cus- 
 tom prevailed among the Romans ; and even at 
 Marseilles; where, as often as they were 
 afflicted with the pestilence, they took a poor 
 person, who offered himself willingly, and kept 
 him a whole year on the choicest food at the 
 public expense. This man was afterwards 
 dressed up with vervain, and in the sacred vest- 
 ments; when being thus led through the city, 
 where he was loaded with execrations, that all 
 
 * Plut. ver. 453. See Spearman's Letters on lxx. p. 411 
 Parkhurst's Gr. Lex. p. 456. voc. UepiKapdapfia. 
 
213 
 
 the misfortunes of the state might rest on him, 
 he was thrown headlong into the sea. It is 
 wonderful how this singular rite of a victim 
 bearing the curse and sins of others, which 
 were supposed to be atoned for by his death 
 and sufferings, prevailed over the whole world. 
 His destruction was always looked upon in 
 the light of an expiation for guilt, and as his 
 ashes were committed to the deep by way of a 
 sacrifice to Neptune, they used these extraor- 
 dinary terms, rv« n>n//»//*a, iv» KaGap/m, Be thou 
 our propitiation, Be thou our purification; or, 
 the cleanser of our guilt, as perhaps the words 
 might be rendered.* 
 
 It has already been hinted that the paradisi 
 of the ancients were looked upon as places of 
 judgment, which circumstance arose out of the 
 prevailing traditions, that some great day of 
 account would at last arrive ; and also from the 
 primeval transaction in paradise, when the first 
 
 * See further the learned authors of the Anc. Univ. Hist, in 
 their vi. vol. p. 103; with an excellent note containing the 
 History of Epimenides, who was sent for to Athens, that he 
 might perform a lustration for the whole city. The only 
 reward he required was a Branch of the sacred olive which 
 grew in the midst of the Academia. Consult Suidas. voc 
 Epimenides, p. 821. Laert. lib. i. 109. Tzctzes Chil. Hist, 
 v. 23. 
 
214 
 
 man, his wife, and the serpent, the two former as 
 the federal representatives of the whole human 
 race, were summoned before the tribunal of the 
 Almighty. The sentence upon each, was then 
 and there pronounced, beyond all doubt, by Him, 
 who shall hereafter come in the clouds of heaven, 
 with all his holy angels, to complete what was 
 begun in Eden, and preside over the consum- 
 mation of all things. Hence, however, it was, 
 that particular places, in which paradise was 
 especially memorialized, were connected with 
 tribunals of justice. This was remarkably the 
 case in the instance of Hades, where the judges 
 were supposed to be three in number, and to 
 decide upon the state of disembodied spirits : 
 
 Nee vero haec sine sorte datae, sine Judice, sedes, 
 Quzesltor Minos urnam movet. Ille silentum 
 Conciliumque vocat vitasque et crimina discit.* 
 
 jEacus and Rhadamanthus were the names 
 of the other two who presided, according to the 
 ideas of the heathen, over the destinies of the 
 souls of the departed. Platof supposed that 
 
 * JEneid vi. 431. Warburton. Div. Leg. vol. i. lib. ii. sec. 
 4. pp. 226-232. 
 
 t Plato de Rep. lib. x. 377. The philosopher mentions 
 these circumstances respecting Hades as having been derived 
 from one Eros, an Armenian, who was raised from the dead. 
 
215 
 
 after the soul had separated from the body it 
 passed into a wonderful place where were two 
 mighty chasms, both in earth and heaven. 
 Between these the judges sat, who, after passing 
 sentence upon the dead, commanded the just 
 to ascend on the right hand into heaven, while 
 the wicked went away on the left, down to the 
 place beneath; both having tablets with the 
 records of their respective sentences, suspended 
 either before or behind them. The same philo- 
 sopher, in his epistles, writes, " that credence 
 " must be always given to ancient and sacred 
 94 traditions, which declare that the soul is 
 " immortal, that it has judges, and receives 
 " from them its last great sentence on separating 
 " from the body." But we must now offer a 
 very few additional observations on another, 
 and the only remaining part of our subject. 
 
 In the course of the present dissertation, 
 various vestiges of the Cherubim have inci- 
 dentally fallen in the way of observation, which 
 will therefore make it less necessary to enlarge 
 upon them now. It is a fact too singular in its. 
 very nature, and too general in its extent, that 
 the connection which has been so frequently dis- 
 
 See a curious note in the Var. Edit. Sulp. Sev. p. 210, as to 
 whether this Eros might not have been the man who revived 
 on his body coming in contact with that of the prophet Elisha. 
 2 Kings xiii. 21. 
 
216 
 
 covered between compound animal representa- 
 tions, and memorials of paradise, could have 
 happened by chance. There must have been 
 some primeval exhibition of the kind, whence 
 all similar traditional symbols were derived. 
 Moses, in the third chapter of Genesis, merely 
 mentions that the " Lord God placed " on the 
 " east of Eden" the Tabernacle or Shechinah of 
 the Cherubim,* with the "flaming sword," which 
 most probably was the sacred place, to which, 
 the faithful amongst the antediluvians resorted 
 for worship. In the subsequent scriptures we 
 are more fully informed as to what the Cheru- 
 bim were, and that their figure was a compound 
 one, consisting of the faces of a man and a lion 
 united, with those also of an ox, and a flying 
 eagle. They appear, moreover, to have been 
 furnished with wings, while the appearance as of 
 a man upon a throne was at times seen above 
 them, with a firmament and cloud over his head. 
 It has been demonstrated to the satisfaction of 
 many amongst the learned, that those myste- 
 rious beings dwelling on the east of paradise in 
 their Shechinah of glory, were in fact " similitudes 
 " of the Great Ones," as their name signifies, 
 and represented a symbolic manifestation of the 
 three persons of Jehovah in covenant with man, 
 
 f See Park. Heb. Lex. voc ana sec. v. 
 
217 
 
 to effect his redemption by the incarnation of 
 the Son of God. The heathens who had a 
 traditional idea of the great promise promul- 
 gated in paradise, would naturally preserve 
 memorials, however rude and corrupted, of 
 such a symbolical representation of the deity, 
 as that on the " east of Eden." Receiving their 
 traditions, however, through the hands of Ham 
 and his posterity, the first postdiluvian idola- 
 ters, they, of course, in their veneration for the 
 Noetic family, who were the Baalim of anti- 
 quity, wilfully forgot the original appropriation 
 of these mysterious symbols, and worshipping 
 at the same time " the creature rather than the 
 " Creator," adored compound animal figures as 
 types of their diluvian ancestors, or often as 
 gods themselves. Neither did they scruple, 
 in the lapse of ages, to mingle together the 
 several events, and then endeavoured, from a 
 chaos of the whole, to form a regular system of 
 fable. So far as one can penetrate the mist 
 which hangs over mythology, it would appear 
 that the very earliest idol of all, which was ever 
 venerated in a visible shape, was a tree, as a 
 base memorial of the symbol in the midst of 
 the garden of Eden. In time this seems to 
 have given place to a pillar, and when arts 
 increased, the tall shapeless stone was made to 
 
218 
 
 receive hands and feet, until at length a 
 human form, in its most perfect symmetry and 
 beauty, became the object of unworthy wor- 
 ship.* Idolatry, however, once became syste- 
 matic, polytheism was quickly introduced, and 
 deities were multiplied ; except perhaps amongst 
 a few superior minds, who clung with pertinacity 
 to the natural idea of the unity of the godhead. 
 Notwithstanding all this, traditions were remem- 
 bered, and these gave the colouring to those 
 overt acts of total apostacy from the true God, 
 which were every day growing more universal. 
 From the causes, therefore, before mentioned, 
 various types came to receive religious worship, 
 and principally those which consisted of animal 
 figures, generally compounded, but sometimes 
 otherwise. Thus, for example, the following 
 legend is attributed to one of the most ancient 
 of pagan deities: "Taautus having formerly 
 
 * Clem. Alexand. lib. i. p. 418. Porphyry de Abstin. 
 lib. ii. 18. Themist. Orat xv. Pausan. ix. pp. 757 — 761. 
 Tertullian ad Gent. i. 12. Chrysostom. Orat. xii. Apollo- 
 nius Rhod. i. 1117. This last is a remarkable instance, as 
 the tree worshipped (or at least the branch of it) was planted 
 in a grove of ancient beeches. See further Suidas and He- 
 sychius, voc. Zoava et fyavov. Bryant vol; i. pp. 336 — 339. 
 Arch. Attic. Rous. lib. ii. cap. 7. p. 53. Potter. Arch. Graec. 
 vol. i. 189. Isaiah xl, 20. Sulp. Sev. de Vit. Mart. cap. x. 
 
219 
 
 " imitated or represented Uranus, also made 
 " images of the gods Cronus and Dagon, and 
 " formed the sacred characters of the other 
 " elements. He contrived also for Cronus the 
 " ensign of his royal power, namely, four eyes 
 " partly before and partly behind, two of them 
 " winking as in sleep ; and upon his shoulders 
 " four wings, two as flying, and two let down 
 " to rest. The emblem was, that Cronus, when 
 " he slept, was yet watching, and that waking, 
 " he yet slept ; and so for his wings, that even 
 " resting, he flew about, and flying, yet rested. 
 " But the other gods had two wings each of 
 " them on their shoulders, to intimate that they 
 " flew about with, or under Cronus. He also 
 " had two wings on his head."* The reader 
 will remember what has been advanced at the 
 commencement of this volume, respecting the 
 tradition that the gods were winged ; and it 
 may be further remarked, that Orpheus, who 
 was looked upon by many as the author of 
 sacred rites and ceremonies, is said to have 
 made one of his principles from the emblem of 
 " a dragon, with the heads of an ox and a lion, 
 
 * Sanction, ap. Euseb. Prep. Evang. lib. i. 10, cited by 
 the authors of the Ancient Universal History in their vol. r. 
 p. 307. 
 
220 
 
 "and in the midst the face of a god, with 
 "golden wings on his shoulders."* Montfau- 
 con gives us two figures of Mithras, the god of 
 the Persians, each of which has a human body, 
 a lion's head, with four wings on the shoulders, 
 two extending towards heaven, and two let fall 
 to the earth.f On comparing these representa- 
 tions with that in the prophet, the analogy will 
 appear striking : " Thus were their faces, and 
 " their wings were stretched upward, two wings 
 "of every one were joined one to another, and 
 "two covered their bodies. "J It has already 
 been hinted that the origin of temples them- 
 selves may be traced up to the cherubic taber- 
 nacle, and some of the other insignia of para- 
 dise: and hence it is that those in Egypt, 
 emphatically called the "land of Ham," are 
 discovered to have had a row of sphinges, or 
 other compound and winged animal figures, 
 extending to a great distance on each side of 
 
 * Cudworth. Int. Syst. vol. i. p. 298. 
 
 f Montfauc. Ant. Exp. torn. ii. p. 369. The reader will 
 find a multitude of instances cited by Parkhurst in his Hebrew 
 Lexicon, under the head l"iD ; though a vast number more 
 might easily be added. The Editor of Calmet's Dictionary, 
 Frag. clii. Forbes in vol. i. p. 198, may be consulted with 
 advantage. 
 
 X Ezekiel i. 22—26. 
 
221 
 
 their entrances.* The columns, also, at Thebes, 
 were adorned with the representations of poly- 
 morphous deities on their capitals ; and gene- 
 rally, perhaps, it may be remarked, that these 
 sphinges, gryphins, chimaeras, and many other 
 idols of a similar nature, exhibited as they so 
 often are on abraxasf and other gems, all in 
 some way or other had their source from 
 those mysterious beings, which composed that 
 grand primeval type, once manifested on " the 
 " east of Eden" to the inhabitants of the ante- 
 diluvian world. 
 
 The heathens, moreover, not only preserved 
 many singular vestiges of the overshadowing 
 cloudj and the symbolic fire, but even some- 
 times imitated that appearance of the firmament 
 
 * This appears to have been particularly the case on that 
 side fronting the east. 
 
 f See the fifth class of these curious gems in Montfaucon. 
 Ant. Exp. p. 358 ; some of them are inscribed with the sacred 
 names Jao, Eloai, Sabaoth, and Adonai, from which circum- 
 stance, many writers of note have attributed their origin to 
 some early heretics called Basilidians. Lardner, however, 
 has shewn that their source is to be looked for in Egypt, and 
 some traditions of the titles of the true God, which the 
 priests had retained from very early antiquity. 
 
 % In addition to what has already been offered, see the 
 instances cited by Parkhurst, of heathen (deities connected 
 with " a cloud," in his Heb. Lex. voc. \w, p. 514. 
 
222 
 
 over the Cherubim, as described in Exodus and 
 Ezekiel, particularly the latter: "And- the 
 " likeness of the firmament upon the heads of 
 " the living creature was as the colour of the 
 " terrible chrystal stretched forth over their 
 " heads above: and above the firmament that 
 " was over their heads, was the likeness of a 
 " throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone, 
 "and upon the likeness of the throne was the 
 " appearance of a man above, upon it." Phi- 
 lostratus* observes that there was in the royal 
 palace in Babylon, a room vaulted like a heaven, 
 and adorned with sapphires of the colour of 
 heaven, with the images of the gods placed 
 aloft, and appearing as it were in the air. The 
 king was wont to give judgment there, and 
 there were four golden lynxes or charms hang- 
 ing down from the roof prepared by the magi- 
 cians, and called Qeov rwrcu " the tongues or 
 " oracles of the gods." We know that in the 
 tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness, and 
 afterwards in the temple of Solomon at Jeru- 
 salem, the oracle was overshadowed by the 
 win^s of the Cherubim, to which there may 
 
 * Philost. de Vit. Apoll. vi. 2. 247. viii. 14. p. 349, et 
 Annot. Olear. Edit. 1709. Pausan. de Phoc. cap. 5. Schol. 
 in Pind. Nem. iv. ver. 66. 
 
*>3 
 
 possibly be some allusion derived from tradi 
 tion, in the four lynxes here n^ntioned.* 
 
 The Cherubim were altogether a mysterious 
 " similitude of the Great Ones," ^ho them- 
 selves were none other than those, \<ho, are 
 elsewhere called in sacred scripture the Elohim 
 or Aleim, and Jehovah. Of these titles, pecu- 
 liar to the Supreme Being, and particularly of 
 the latter of them, some traces are discoverable 
 in mythology. The Carthaginians, for exam- 
 ple, gave to their greatest deities of all, the. name 
 of the Alonim, while the Phoenicians and Syrians 
 
 * The lynx was a bird made frequent use of by the heathen 
 in their incantations. The tongue is sometimes said to have 
 been the part most valued. Syuesius de Insom. p. 134. 
 Nicephorus in Schol. Obser. 360. Stanleius. Philos. 1, 2, 3. 
 Chald. Orac. v. 115. The figures alluded to in the repre- 
 sentation of Philostratus were perhaps suspended, with their, 
 wings outstretched, and hovering. Isaac, in Lycoph. Cas- 
 sand. 310. Suidas. Pind. Pyth. iv. 380. Theocrit. Idyl, 
 ii. 17. Nat. Com. viii. 18. Tzetzes mentions that when an 
 oracle of this sort was consulted, the lynx was turned round 
 and round upon a magical wheel ; which symbol was also 
 introduced into the sacred dance of Cybele. Apoll. Rhod. i. 
 1139. The lynxes in the temple at Delphi were golden ones, 
 and thought by some to have been the same representation as 
 the Sirens, which were compound figures. The Egyptian 
 Seraphis is sometimes represented with these mystic images 
 hovering, or suspended around him. Kircher. CEdip. Egpyt. 
 torn. iii. p. 479. 
 
c&4 
 
 named Saturn the reputed father of the gods, 
 El, II, and Ilus a U of which are manifest deri- 
 vatives from *kti Eloah, the holy name of the 
 Creator U the singular number. Among the 
 second, indeed, of these three nations, we hear 
 
 " 01 $e ffyfj-fxaxot IX« ts Kpovu EAilEIM ETreKX-q^rjcrav the 
 
 " companions of Saturn or Ilus were called 
 " Elohim !" Analogous to this was the title of 
 " the most high Elion," which they conferred 
 upon one of their deities, and he was declared, 
 according to that ancient writer Sanchoniathon, 
 " to have begat heaven and earth." This very 
 name is given by Moses to the one only and 
 true God; for Abraham said to the king of 
 Sodom, " I have lifted up my hand to Jehovah, 
 " the most high Elion, the begetter of heaven 
 " and earth."* 
 
 In a fragment of Philo Byblius, taken from 
 Sanchoniathon, and preserved in Eusebius,f a 
 
 * Euseb. Prep. Evang. lib. xxxvii. et ut supra. Bochart. 
 Canaan, lib. ii. cap. 2. p. 784. Plautus in Poen. Act. v. 
 Scena 2. Scalig. not. in Fragm. Grsec. Selden de diis Syr. 
 Gale's Court of the Gentiles. Stillingfleet's Orig. Sac. iii. 5. 
 p. 404. Gen. xiv. 19, 22. 
 
 t Euseb. Prep. Evang. lib. i. p. 18. Ancient Univer. Hist. 
 Carthag. vol. xvi. p. 622, and the authors cited by these 
 learned writers. Also Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. under the 
 head mn> Jehovah. Vossius de Orig. Idol. ii. 14. pp. 378, 
 379. 
 
225 
 
 most remarkable mention is made of the god 
 Jevo, and his priest Jerombaal, who was evi- 
 dently Gideon, the Judge of Israel, styled in 
 holy writ, from his contention with the idol- 
 atrous worshippers of B,aal, JerubbaaL Ire- 
 nseus, Theodoret, Clemens of Alexandria, Euse- 
 bius, and Epiphanius have proved that the Jevo 
 of Sanchoniathon was none other than Jehovah; 
 and that the four letters which compose this 
 awful name in the Hebrew, were written in 
 Greek, Jaou, or Jau, or Jao. Diodorus Sicu- 
 lus, after enumerating several legislators who 
 claimed for their laws the sanction of different 
 deities, concludes by mentioning the name of 
 Moses, who, he says, prescribed his ordinances 
 to the Jews, under the authority of the god 
 Jao.* The oracle of Apollo Clarius, at one 
 time the most famous in the world, according 
 to Macrobius, once uttered the following : 
 
 Qpafetu tov iravTiov vtccltov Qeov efifiep IAO.f 
 
 " I declare that the supreme God of all is 
 "Jah or Jehovah!" Nearly allied to these 
 traditions is the title Juve or Jove, by which 
 the Etruscans, who were descended from the 
 Pelasgi, Phoenicians, and Lydians, addressed 
 
 * Diod. Sic. lib. i. cap. 7. 
 
 t Macrob Saturn, i. 18. p. 240. 
 
226 
 
 their chief deity Jupiter, which itself in fact is 
 only a corruption of Jao-pater. Aulus Gel litis 
 also affirms that the most ancient Latin name 
 for Jupiter was Jo vis* or Jove. Now the 
 Phoenician U answered to the Hebrew O, and 
 therefore it seems pretty clear that Juve, or 
 Jove, and Jehovah were originally one and the 
 same title, involving in their signification the 
 peculiar attribute of deity, which is self-exist- 
 ence. Varro, cited by St. Augustine, says, 
 " Deum Judaeorum esse Jovem, the god of the 
 " Jews was Jove ;" certainly shewing that it 
 was merely a corruption of, and a tradition 
 derived from the sacred name Jehovah. Seneca 
 assures us that this Juve or Jove was the cause 
 of causes, the great governor and director of 
 the world, and the principle of life and motion. 
 According to Plato, the Greek name Zeus 
 imported, properly speaking, the same that 
 Jehovah does ; that is, " the Being of beings, 
 " the source of all existence." And in another 
 place, this great philosopher-)" asks Tl to on 
 
 * Jovis is used by Eniiius as the nominative case. Montfauc. 
 Ant. Exp. torn. i. p. 34, plate 9. Parkhurst. Aul. Gell. v. 12. 
 
 t Plato in Timaeo. Justin Martyr, Cohort ad Graec. pp. 19, 
 20, 23. See also the treatise passing under the name of this 
 great father de monarchia Dei, passim. Plut. Isis et Osir 
 p. 352. Euseb. Prep. Evang. xi. cap. ii. Bryant on the 
 Plagues of Egypt, p. 198. Dickenson Delph. Phoen. x. 136. 
 
227 
 
 ptv aut; yiviaiv & ovk exov, "explain to me that 
 " deity On, which ever is, and never knew 
 " beginning nor production.'' The title On, is 
 here equivalent to the Hebrew n> Jah, / am ; 
 He who is, simply, absolutely, and indepen- 
 dently — the self-existent Being — the o &N ! 
 Hence, from Jah, the original name of the true 
 God, the ancient Greeks had their It?, I??; and 
 the Latins their Jo, Jo, in their frantic invoca- 
 tions of their gods. And hence, probably, 
 those remarkable characters 31 (written after 
 the oriental manner, from right to left) after- 
 wards ei, were derived, which were inscribed 
 over the door of Apollo's temple at Delphi; 
 while by the deity On, into whose nature the 
 Grecian sage was enquiring, was also denoted 
 none other than the living God ; nor is it likely 
 that Plato could have borrowed this latter- 
 term from Moses, for the scriptures were not 
 translated into Greek, until long after his death. 
 He had, however, resided three years in Egypt, 
 and procured his knowledge of the name of 
 God from the same fountain whence the authors 
 of the septuagint afterwards borrowed ; namely, 
 from the priests of the country, who had pre- 
 served the tradition and knew the import of 
 the sacred title, although, as idolaters, they had 
 abused it, conferring it upon their idol the sun, 
 
 Q 
 
228 
 
 or his emblem. It is fair, therefore, to conceive, 
 upon all the authorities adduced, that those 
 names of the Almighty Being by which He has 
 been pleased to manifest Himself to man, were 
 not unknown to the heathen. 
 
 One instance more on this head shall suffice. 
 The Chronicon Paschale has preserved the 
 response said to have been given by a very 
 ancient oracle to Thulis, one of the earliest 
 kings of Egypt, as follows, when he was 
 asking, who that Being was, that ruled all 
 things ? 
 
 Ilpwra 0EO2, /ureTreira A0r02, Kai IINEYMA aw 
 
 Nor need we wonder at this attestation to 
 the great truth of a divine trinity from a pagan 
 oracle, when we remember that among the 
 islands of the Pacific Ocean, a similar tradition- 
 ary idea was handed down from generation to 
 generation. In Otaheite, " the general name 
 " for deity in all its manifestations, is Eatooa. 
 " Three are held supreme, standing in a height 
 " of celestial dignity to which none others can 
 " approach ; and what is more extraordinary, 
 
 * Cited by Faber in Hor. Mos. in Annot. vol. i. p. 337. 
 
229 
 
 " is, that their names are personal appel- 
 " lations : 
 
 1. Tane te Medooa, The Father. 
 
 2. Oromattow Tooa tee te Myde, God in the Son. 
 
 3. Tarroa Mannoo te Hooa, The Bird the Spirit:^ 
 
 Such is a very imperfect sketch of the testi- 
 mony of tradition, to the truth and authenticity 
 of the account given by Moses, of paradise, and 
 the Fall of Man. It might seem presumptuous, 
 perhaps, to affirm how far the Gentiles may be 
 considered as accountable for that degrading 
 use they made of this mass of evidence in their 
 possession. We have the authority of an 
 apostle, with regard to their being "left without 
 " excuse" as to the invisible things of God, 
 which, " from the creation of the world, are 
 " clearly seen, being understood by the things 
 " that are made, even his eternal power and god- 
 " head." Yet the light which shone upon them 
 from natural theology, as well as the important 
 truths which had been handed down to them 
 by tradition, appear to have been almost wholly 
 neglected: for, "when they knew God, they 
 " glorified him not as God, neither were thank- 
 
 t Wilson's Miss. Voy. cited by Faber. ut supra. 
 
230 
 
 " ful ; but became vain in their imaginations, 
 "and their foolish heart was darkened: pro- 
 cessing themselves to be wise they became 
 "fools; and changed the glory of the incor- 
 " ruptible God into an image made like to 
 " corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed 
 "beasts, and creeping things." The philoso- 
 pher in Egypt, compared with the rest of the 
 world, (one nation alone excepted,) might be 
 called, in some respects, almost an enlightened 
 man. He possessed traditions, as we have 
 seen, which pointed, however obscurely, to the 
 leading features .of revelation;* namely, the 
 total apostacy of man from his maker, and as a 
 consequence, the necessity of reconciliation 
 between earth and heaven by a vicarious atone- 
 ment. He was aware, moreover, that the self- 
 existent God was before all worlds, and that 
 " in Him we live, and move, and have our 
 " being." He knew that the vast frame of 
 
 * Justyn Martyr complains that in his day the reading of 
 the Sibylline prophecy, and some other writings of a similar 
 nature, was forbidden on pain of death ; a circumstance, he 
 affirms, originating from demoniacal malignancy which feared 
 the effect of truth, even obscurely revealed as it was, in these 
 singular documents. Apol. pro Christ, ii. p. 82. This seems, 
 however, indisputably to prove that therein some truths, and 
 those too of a very important kind, were contained. 
 
231 
 
 nature was the work of His almighty hand, 
 that from darkness light was originally pro- 
 duced,* and that by the power pf divine agency 
 the whole universe was pervaded with motion 
 and vitality. He was not entirely ignorant 
 even of those sacred and incommunicable 
 names appropriated to the all-glorious Creator ; 
 yet he was contented to serve the creature : 
 he bowed his knee to the Baalim, who were 
 none other than the monuments of the mercy 
 and justice of the true God : he lifted up his 
 eyes indeed towards heaven, but it was only to 
 adore the luminary of day as an emblem of 
 idols, or pay homage to the moon's pale cres- 
 cent, which, typical as it was merely of the 
 instrument of a world's preservation, was yet 
 deemed by him a more exalted object than the 
 invisible and holy One, who, with a word, had 
 summoned the universe into existence ! 
 
 Thus, then, does it appear, that knowledge 
 in the head, without a manifestation which 
 touches and changes the heart, profiteth nothing. 
 " The wisdom of the world is foolishness with 
 "God;" and even St. Paul had well nigh 
 addressed his Athenian audience in vain. We 
 
 * Orphic. Hymn. Gesner. p. 377. Cud worth Int. Sys. lib*, 
 cap. 4. p. 414. Bryant on the Plagues of Egypt, p. 15&. 
 
232 
 
 may learn, therefore, the necessity, as well as 
 the glory of a revelation, which displays God 
 as the reconciled Father of his offending chil- 
 dren ; as the affectionate Saviour of every soul 
 that accepts his proffered mercy: and as the 
 ineffable Sanctifier, who changes the heart of 
 man, translates him from a state of worse than 
 chaotic darkness, into the glorious refulgence 
 of the new creation, and hovers over the soul 
 with dovelike pinions the author and source of 
 life, and love, and holiness. Without such a 
 revelation as this, what are the years of life 
 with relatiou to eternity ? Where is the boasted 
 wisdom which once irradiated from the banks 
 of the Nile? The sophists and philosophers, 
 with thousands who listened to their lectures, 
 and drank deep at the fountains of human 
 learning, have all passed to their long home, 
 the land of silence and forget fulness. The 
 sciences which many of them taught, as well as 
 the opinions they supported, or the discoveries 
 they made, will be alike of no account amidst 
 the conflagration of the universe, when all 
 mankind shall stand on the same level before 
 their Judge eternal! The ruins of Thebes and 
 Memphis, formerly the grand centres, whence 
 all that was wise and noble of a system unen- 
 lightened by revelation emanated, are now 
 
233 
 
 objects only for melancholy research, and 
 barely testify to the uninformed traveller, that 
 such cities once existed. But there is a light 
 in which they may be viewed as emblematic of 
 the evidence afforded to the truth of the sacred 
 oracles, by mythology. These are like a noble 
 temple, majestic in their plan, and perfect in 
 their several proportions ; while divine inspira- 
 tion burns within, as the hallowed fire upon the 
 altar. The heathen had heard of this temple, 
 and had even beheld parts of it; but in attempt- 
 ing to rear one similar, the glory of the original 
 was forgotten, and enough alone remained to 
 prove beyond all doubt, the previous existence 
 and perfections of the model they had intended 
 to imitate, but could not. Yet even this stolen 
 imitation of the heavenly structure has fallen — 
 the dromos — the pillar — the propylon — all is 
 one vast cheerless ruin ; and if here and there a 
 column be found standing, cloud and darkness 
 rest upon its capital! There is, however, a 
 voice heard from the mighty wreck, which 
 hypothetically lies before us; — It is the voice 
 of tradition, and heard more perceptibly, from 
 the surrounding silence of the scene whence it 
 proceeds : and there is, too, at the same time, a 
 grandeur and fading majesty hovering over 
 these ruins of antiquity, at once both affecting 
 
234 
 
 and awful. Indeed, it could not have been 
 chance that reared such a fabric ; and the lines 
 are yet discoverable of its likeness to the greater 
 prototype after which it was designed, and 
 doubtless for the collateral evidence of whose 
 perfection it is even yet thus partially pre- 
 served : 
 
 the form hath not yet lost 
 All its original brightness ; nor appears 
 Less than Archangel ruin'd, and the excess 
 Of glory obscur'd ! 
 
 FINIS, 
 
 
 J. U'llLCOTT, Priim>.r,6, High Street, Bri«U.«l. 
 
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