"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.

Τιν δ' αυτά καλον άλσος εποίησαντο Πελασγοι

· Δενδρεσιν αμφιλαφες-δια κεν μολις ήλθεν διςος ;
Εν πιτυς εν μεγάλαι πτελεαι εσαν, εν δε και οχναι
Εν δε καλα γλυκυμαλα-το δως αλεκτρίνον ύδωρ
Εξ αμαραν ανεθνε

"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,† speaks of the last mentioned tree as follows:

Media fert tristes succos, tardumque saporem

Felicis mali, quo non præsentius ullum

Pocula si quando sævæ infecere novercæ

Auxilium venit, ac membris agit atra venena.

*This goddess was sometimes represented as standing between two trees. "Erat Ceres inter duas arborés pomis "onustas.” Albricus. Phil. de Deo. imag. 23.

+ Ver. 126.

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.

Ενθα δε δένδρεα καλα πεφύκει τηλεθόωντα
Οχναι και ροιαι και μηλεαι αγλαόκαρποι
Συκαι τε γλυκεραι και ελααι τηλεθουσαι
Ταων ούποτε καρπος απόλλυται ουδ' επιλειπει
Χειματος, ουδε θερευς επιτησιος, αλλα μαλ' αιει
Ζεφυρίη πνείουσα, τα μεν φύει, αλλα τε πεσσει.
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.

+Kaλa is the reading of Athenæus, though pakpa is the usual epithet found in this place, in the common editions of the Iliad. Odyss. H. 114.

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

66

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 Phœacians, 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 memorials. Justin Martyr directly affirms that "the "garden of Alcinous" was nothing more than "a heathen representation of paradise:" Το ΠΑΡΑΔΕΙΣΟΥ δε εικονα τον Αλκινου κῆπον σωζειν πεποιηκε are the very words of this learned father, who has transcribed the above description into his first exhortation. We may there

*Εν δυω

κρηναι.

*Ev de duw konval. 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.

+ Cohort. ad Græc. p. 27.

fore consider the whole as a sacred, enclo

sure:

Εκτοςθεν δ' αυλης μεγας ορχατος αγχι θυραων
Τετράγυος-περι δ' ερκος ελήλαται αμφοτερωθεν.
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 shechinah, with the cherubic exhibition on the east of Eden. This was the temple or palace of Alcinous, and was singularly magnificent and superb.

* Ωςε γαρ γελιου αιγλη πέλεν, με σεληνης
Δώμα και υψερεφες μεγαλήτορος Αλκινόοιο
Χαλκεοι μεν γαρ τοιχοι εληλαδατ' ενθα και ενθα
Ες μυχου εξ εδε περι δε θριγκος κυάνοιο.
Χρύσειαι δε θυραι πυκινόν δομον εντος εεργον
Αργύρεοι δε σταθμοι εν χαλκεω εςασαν εδω.
· Αργυρεον δ' εφ' υπερθύριον, χρυσέη δε κορώνη.
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.

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 obscurely, some vestiges of the cherubic-animal exhibition on the east of Eden.

Χρύσειοι δ' εκάτερθε και αργύριοι κυνες εσαν
Ους Ηφαιστος ετυξεν ιδυίησι πραπίδεσσι,
Δώμα φυλασσέμεναι μεγαλήτορος Αλκινόοιο
Αθάνατος οντας και αγηρως ηματα παντα.
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 have come originally out of the east, and

must h

* Ezek. i. 22—26. A similar instance of heathenish imita- ele. tion is mentioned by Philostratus de Vit. Apoll. lib. iii. cap. 11.