plained in 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 paradisaical state of innocence and bliss which mankind had forfeited, and to which it was naturally 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 antiquity 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

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 Æneid. 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,t 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
"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 ide.. lib. iii. p. 223. Plutarch in Sertorio.

Albricús de deor. imag. x. 313.

"death entered into the world." The serpent, moreover, is not omitted in this hieroglyphic description.

There is a remarkable account in Ælian 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 represent to us another instance of their allegorical ideas of paradise, looked upon by the heathens as the future and invisible world. The historian informs us, from Theopompus, that upon the bounds of the happy region "there was a "place called AVOGTOV 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 “ HAONHΣ kaλe 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

"obtained youth and immortality."*

The delicious valley of Tempe, so exquisitely described by the same author, was also a consecrated enclosure, of which the history and accompanying circumstances present us with paradisaical memorials. The river Peneus, a most remarkable stream rolled through it “ ελαια δικην 66 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 earth↑ raised in honour of the Seer, who was also mysteriously connected both with the institution of marriage and the serpent. The whole vale

* Ælian 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 "the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold "of that land is good; there is bdellium and the onyx stone.” Ælian. Var. Hist, lib. iii. 18. et lib. iii. 1. ¡¬y Eden, whence ndovn pleasure, and ɛdavos pleasant. Parkhurst. in voc.

+ Which is the signification of the radical Tith, at least in some instances. See Bryant, vol. ii. p. 128.

Vidi

道

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 Thessalians affirmed that in the valley of Tempe, Apollo, after his victory over the serpent, underwent 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 "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, Bibliothec. lib.i. Lucianus de Gymn. p. 384. Salmur. 1619. Curtius de ludis Pyth. p. 33. Id de hortis, p. 34.