INTRODUCTION.



and stubbornly maintained, that the site
was to be discovered in America, that
that Adam and Eve first drew the breath
that it is to America the whole world is
its inhabitants.



  The opinions, even of the more rational
are very strangely divided. Tartary, Chin
Armenia, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, Arabia,
Syria, Ethiopia, and even Sweden, have
sacked in search of this wonderful garden.
  The opinion has likewise prevailed, that 1
earth was originally in a parhdisaical state (
although Moses, say they, has put a part for I
that man might better conceive the primitii
ance of the earth, which was afterwards des
the violent concussions of nature, caused by t]
deluge.
  If we consider the general habit which pro



the early
scripture,
sity of 0o
kind, the
with the
from  the
informati



ages of allegoriz:
, we need not at a
)inions.- There
3 Jews, who are i
history of Moses
m we would natt
on on the subje



* 8
Ing  en
Ill be
is a c
more I
S than



of paradise
it was here
of life; and
indebted for



inquirers,
a, Persia,
Palestine,
been ran-

the whole
)f beauty,
:he whole,
re appear-
troyed by
ie general



evailed in



rery obscure passage of
surprised at the diver-
ertain portion of mane
immediately connected
any other people, and



irally expect to receive some
et; yet they are so utterly
                -. ~ ~ ~ s  1



ignorant of the geography of the sacred history, and ot
the situation of Paradise, that there is no woider why
this question should not be easily solved. Josephus,
their historian, supposes that the Nile and the Ganges
were two of its four rivers; and in this opinion he is
supported by some of the Christian fathers.
  Near Tripoli, there is a place called Eden; the river
Tigris has an island of the name of Eden; and near
Tarsusi in Cilicia, there is a city still going under the
name 1of Adena or Aden. In Syria, there is Eden; and
in Chaldea, about Telassar, there is another. These
two are mentioned in the Mosaical account, the latter
of which may, very probably, be the famous garden.
                            3



213



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