tradition of Adam's formation in that field, I shall not take upon me to determine.

The mention of the formation of Adam brings to my remembrance a dispute we had one evening with the superior of the convent where we lodged, concerning the situation of the terrestrial Paradise, or Garden of Eden; which the good man, contrary to the sentiments of all the rest of the company, would needs place in the neighbourhood of Damascus. From hence I took occasion, at my leisure hours, to digest as well as possible what was advanced by every person who had a share in the discourse; and since that time I have likewise diligently examined the several opinions of the most learned writers on this subject; so that I hope to be able to give the reader a clear view of the whole controversy, and to point out to him the delightful place of abode allotted to our first parents in their state of happiness and in

nocence.

It is well known what a variety of extravagant notions have been entertained concerning a local paradise, the subject of our present enquiry. Several of the primitive fathers believed there never was any such thing, interpreting in an allegorical sense whatever is spoken of it in scripture. Others, who allowed the reality of a paradise, have rambled so far from the sacred text, as to exclude it from any part of the terrestrialglobe. They have placed it in the third heaven, within the orb of the moon, in the moon itself, in the middle region of the air, &c. And of those who allow it a situation in this sublunary world, some have carried it into a far distant country, quite removed from the knowledge of men; others have fix

ed it under the North pole *, and others have assign ed it the place at present possessed by the Caspian sea; with many more extravagancies of the like nature, which have been collected by several authors, some of whom have thought it worth while to give such reveries a serious answer.

Even the more rational sort of enquirers after the terrestrial paradise are strangely divided in their opinions, almost every corner of the earth having been ransacked in search of this wonderful garden. It has been looked for in Tartary, in China, in the isle of Ceylon, in Persia, in Armenia, in Mesopotamia, in Chaldea, in Arabia, in Palestine, in Lybia, in Ethio pia, and (which seems as much out of the way as any) even in Sweden. Lastly, some have conclud ed, that there never was originally any place upon our globe of peculiar and superlative beauty, but that the whole earth, in its primitive state, was equal ly paradisiacal; that Moses, in his account of paradise, only puts a part for the whole, the better to accom modate it to his reader's conception; or that, if ever there were such a beautiful place upon the earth, the violent concussions which happened at the deluge have so entirely changed the face of nature, that it is almost impossible at present to find it out.

This diversity of opinions proceeds partly from that humour which prevailed in the early ages of Christianity, of allegorizing all passages of scripture that appeared difficult to be understood; and partly from the little agréement to be found between

* This was the opinion of Postellus, which he grounded upon, an ancient tradition of the Egyptians and Babylonians, that the ecliptic or sun's way at first crossed the equator at right angles, and so passed directly over the Arctic pole. Bb

the geography of Moses and that of the heathen au thors, whose imperfections are not yet perhaps suffi ciently supplied to give as much assistance to de termine the affair in question. As for the Jews, from whom we might naturally expect some light into matters that concern their own antiquities, they are utterly ignorant of the geography of their Bible, and have run astray as much as other nations in their description of paradise; Josephus, and all the rest of their authors, supposing the Ganges, and the Nile to be two, of its four rivers, in which they have been followed almost unanimously by the Christian fathers.

There are several places which bear the name of Eden, two whereof we find mentioned in scripture, besides that in the Mosaical description, viz, one in Syria *, and the other in Chaldea about Telassar t, which perhaps may be the same with that of Moses. I have already mentioned an Eden near Tripoli; and we are told of an island in the Tigris so called by the people of the country. There is a city near Tarsus in Cilicia still called Adena, and Aden is a noted one on the coast of Arabia Felix; for Eden or Aden signifying pleasure, that name was given to places remarkable for the delightfulness of their situation, considered either in themselves, or comparatively with the adjacent country; which last seems to be the case of Aden in Arabia.

But let us consider the description of Eden given us by Moses, which is as follows: "And the Lord "God planted a garden Eastward in Eden:-And a "river went out of Eden to water the garden; and "from thence it was parted, and became into four † 2 Kings xix. 12. Isaiah xxxvii. 12.

* Amos i. 5.

"heads. The name of the first is Pison; that is it "which compasseth 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 compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia (or "Cush.) And the name of the third river is Hid"dekel: that is it which goeth toward the East of

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(or Eastward to) Assyria. And the fourth fiver is "Euphrates."*

To me it appears evident from this account, that Moses had no imaginary paradise in view, but a póf. tion of this habitable earth, bounded by countries and rivers, very well known in his time by the names he gives them, and, as appears from scripture, for many ages after. Can we doubt that Eden is a real country, any more than Ararat where the ark rested, and Shinar whither the sons of Noah remov ed after the flood? We find it mentioned as such in scripture, as often as the other two; and there is the more reason to believe it, because the scenes of these three remarkable events are laid in the neigh. bourhood of one another by the sacred historian.

As to the supposition, that a very great change was made in the face of countries, and the course of rivers, by the violence of the deluge, it seems to be no just discouragement to an enquiry after the place of the terrestrial paradise; for it cannot be thought, that Moses, who wrote 850 years after the flood, would have given us such a particular description of the garden of Eden, if there had been no marks or indications of it then remaining. Besides, he does.

* Gen. ii. 8, 10-14.

not make use of antedeluvian names in his account of paradise; for the names of the rivers, and the countries adjacent, Cush*, Havilah, &c. are of a latter date: so that it appears to have been the intention of Moses to give us, according to the geography of his times, some hints where Eden and the garden of paradise were situated in the former world; and which I doubt not, may still be discovered by carefully attending to his description.

Some eminent modern writers, deceived by the affinity of names, have supposed they found the name of the Pison preserved in the Pasi-Tigris, or rather (as they would have it, to favour their hypothesis) the Piso Tigris; whilst others take for granted that it is the Phasis, as they conclude the Aras to be the Gihon, from the conformity of the signification; both those terms being used by the Persians to signify any great river in general. But if such conjectures as these were to be taken for solid arguments, Eden might be discovered any where, and every where, since a conformity of names, either in sound or signification, may be found in all countries; and if that sort of proof be admitted, unless under proper restrictions, it will be no difficult matter to prove that

* Our translators have often swerved from the original Hebrew to follow the Septuagint, and here in particular have rendered the word Cush (which country was so called from Cush the father of Nimrod, first founder of the Assyrian monarchy) by the name of Ethiopia, which has led Josephus and several others into a mistake, that the river Gihon was the Nile in Egypt; and, supposing withal, that the country of Havilah was some part of the East Indies, they have run into another error, and taken Pison for the Ganges; whereby they make the garden of Eden contain the greatest part of Asia, and some part of Africa likewise, which is a supposition quite incredible.