spired writers of the New Testament have borrowed some of their most beautiful figures from the terrestrial paradise. In the glowing description of the millennium, with which the apostle John closes the book of Revelation, it is easy to discover a number of allusive passages. The nations of the redeemed shall wander on the banks of a pure and majestic river, and drink of its refreshing streams; they shall repose under the shade of the tree of life, and feast without restraint on its rich and various fruits; no flaming cherubim shall obstruct the way of the returning sinner to its shelter, and no serpent shall inflict a wound which its leaves cannot heal.* But the delights of paradise apply with still greater force and beauty to the land of everlasting rest. The same writer therefore enforces his call to the church of Ephesus, to repent and do the first works,' with this declaration :-'To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God;' and the dying Saviour cheered the last moments of the penitent thief with this most consoling promise, which in one word conveyed to his mind the most vivid conception of celestial happiness :-To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise.' +

* Rev. xxii. 1, 2, 3.

+ Rev. ii. 7.

+ Luke xxiii. 43. [The opinion given by our author respecting the probable site of the primeval paradise, is that which was first broached by Calvin, and warmly espoused and elaborately defended by Huetius, bishop of Avranches. Bochart, Morinus, Wells, and others, among whom is Grotius, have also with some trifling differences, given it the support of their high authority; and certainly it must be acknowledged, that arguments of a very plausible kind, and of no small weight, have been adduced in defence of this hypothesis. According to this scheme, Eden lay on either side of the united stream of the Hiddekel or Dijlat, the Tigris, and of the Euphrates, which junction is now called by the Arabs Shat-el-Arab, and which, according to the statement of Thevenot and others, begins two day's journey above Bussorah, and above five miles below divides again into several channels, which empty themselves into the Persian Gulf. Thus the Shat-el-Arab would be the river that went out of Eden; and if viewed not according to the current, but by an inspection of its channel, it appears to divide into four heads

Adjoining to the land of Eden lay the country of Nod, the place of Cain's exile, and the scene of his wanderings. Unable to bear the presence of his father,

or branches, which constituted the four rivers mentioned by Moses, viz. two below, the Pison, which is the western branch, and the Gihon and two above, the Tigris and Euphrates. Among other difficulties, however, connected with this hypothesis, the two following seem to be very obvious, first, that the two lower branches of the Stat-el-Arab seem to be too inconsiderable to encompass countries of any extent, or even to be dignified with the name of rivers; and secondly, that though avowedly founded on the supposition, that the grand leading features of the earth's surface, and especially the channels of the rivers, continued the same after the deluge as before that great devastation, the actual appearance of the site fixed upon does not correspond with the description of the inspired historian. 'The garden,' says Mr Milne, seems to have been a peninsula; for the way or entrance into it is afterwards mentioned. We are told that a river went out of it, which, according to some, should be rendered ran on the outside of it, and thus gave it the form of a horse shoe; for had the Euphrates ran through the middle of the garden, one half of it would have been useless to Adam without a bridge wherewith to have crossed it.'

The truth is, that the grand error into which almost all writers on this subject have fallen, is, that they have searched in some existing locality for features of a country corresponding to the description given in the book of Genesis; whereas, it is well known from the observations of geologists, as well as from the testimony of history and tradition, that the surface of the earth almost universally has undergone so many changes since its formation from inundations, earthquakes, and a variety of other causes, especially from the influence of the universal deluge, which must have, to a great degree, broken up and deranged the channels of rivers, &c., that it may be confidently pronounced to be a hopeless attempt now to discover any place on the surface of the globe exactly answering the inspired description of Eden.

Another hypothesis, which is supported by the name of the eminent Dutch geographer Reland, Calmet, and others, places Eden in Armenia. Proceeding upon the idea, that while Cain went eastward, Seth and his pious posterity continued in the vicinity of the original paradise; and that the ark of Noah rested, after the subsiding of the deluge, at no great distance from his ancient abode ; they consider Mount Ararat as a commanding feature, that naturally points out the quarter where the site of Eden is to be sought for. They farther support their opinion by supposing Cush to mean the country of the Cossai, or Caucasus according to others, and by dwelling on the circumstance of the Euphrates, the Tigris, the Araxes, and the Phases (or Cyrus) having their sources among the mountains of Armenia at no great distance.

Many other localities have the honour assigned them of having

whom he had so deeply injured and so grievously afflicted; stimulated by the accusations and forebodings of his own guilty conscience; and required, it is probable, by an express mandate from Heaven,-he forsook the fruitful and pleasant fields of Eden, which he had polluted with a brother's blood, and directed his course to the neighbouring desert. Here he endeavoured to forget the agonies of remorse in the engagements of active life; and to secure himself and his family from the dreaded resentment of his irritated brethren, he built a city; and, yielding to the dictates of parental affection, called it after the name of his son Enoch. It is extremely probable that the term Nod, derived from a Hebrew verb which signifies to wander, was not the proper name of the country, but only an appellative, denoting a fugitive or vagabond, in allusion to the wandering life which Cain was doomed to lead during the residue of his days.

The true situation of Nod is, not less than that of

been the scene of the terrestrial paradise. Michaelis, places it near the Caspian Sea. Josephus, and many of the Fathers, in the country lying between the Nile and the Ganges. Some in India, and some, under an impression that since the flood the climates have been completely altered, have advocated the opinion which assigns it to the cold northern regions of Europe. These extraordinary diversities of opinion have probably arisen from the profound ignorance into which the Jews fell as to every thing connected with the antiquities of the Bible after their captivity, and partly also from the discrepancies found between the statements of Moses and those of profane authors, whose use of geographical terms it is often extremely difficult to understand or reconcile. The allegorizing spirit of many of the christian fathers, too, led them to suppose that the terrestrial paradise was purely an imaginary picture; at least, that it never existed on this earth, but had its locality, if any, in the middle region of the air, or the moon. It were a useless waste of time and space to state the arguments by which each theorist supports the probable truth of his own views; and as the subject, however interesting, is purely a matter of antiquarian curiosity, and is not connected with the elucidation of any important point in the history or doctrines of the Bible, we must refer our readers who wish to prosecute the subject, to the ancient Universal History, vol. viii.; or Rosenmuller's Geography, the translator of which Mr Morren has given a tabular view of the different opinions on the site of Eden, with the names of the authors who respectively support them.]-Ed.

Eden, involved in much obscurity, which the most celebrated geographers have endeavoured in vain to dissipate. The imperfect resemblance of one name to another, and the corresponding situation of ancient cities, are insufficient to guide the cautious inquirer to a satisfactory conclusion. It is extremely improbable that the city of Enoch which Cain built, was able to resist the shock of the deluge. Like the garden of Paradise, it was certainly swept from the face of the earth, without leaving a single vestige behind to mark the spot where it once stood. And were the opinion of Huetius admitted, that Anuchtha, the name of an ancient city in the province of Susiana or Khuzestan, is the Chaldee form of Enoch, and that Ptolemy was right in placing it on the east of Eden, it will not follow that it was the city built by Cain; for the inspired writer mentions another person of that name, the son of Jared, and father of Methuselah, so remarkable for religion, that God, as a signal reward to him, and an encouragement to others, translated him to heaven, without subjecting him to the common lot of our fallen nature. From which of these persons the city of Anuchtha might take its name, cannot now be determined. The probability is, that it derived its name from neither, but was built in honour of some person who bore the name of Enoch in ages long posterior.

That the murderer was compelled to remove to a greater distance from the scene of his wickedness than Huetius supposes, is rendered extremely probable from the terms of his sentence :-' And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.** These words, addressed by the Judge of all the earth to the blood-stained criminal, certainly refer, not to the fertile regions that, except toward the

*Genesis iv. 11, 12.

G.

D

west, encircled the land of Eden, but to some barren and ungrateful soil, from which his utmost exertions should scarcely procure him a scanty subsistence. It was not then in the pleasant and fruitful country of Susiana, where Ptolemy places the city of Anuchtha, that the fratricide was compelled to wander, but in the thirsty and sterile deserts of Arabia Petræa, a region admirably adapted to the purposes of punishment or correction.* This part of Arabia extends to the western boundary of Eden, and, by consequence, in relation to the place where Moses resided and wrote, is strictly and properly before or over against it ;' which greatly corroborates the opinion, first suggested by Grotius, that those frightful deserts received the condemned fugitive.t

These circumstances considered, it is probable that the land of Nod was situated somewhere in the eastern extremity of Arabia Petræa, extending its border to the western limits of Eden. But no traces of the name are now to be found to guide the researches, and reward the labours, of the inquirer. Nor can it be ascertained whether the word Nod is to be taken for a proper name or an appellative. It cannot, however, admit of a doubt, that it alludes to the exile of the fratricide.

* Some suppose that their sterility might be the effect of the curse pronounced upon Cain:- When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength.'-Editor.

While Grotius places the land of Nod in Arabia Petræa, Huetius fixes it in the south-east of Persia, Michaelis towards China, Calmet in Nysa, &c.-Editor.