is not impossible, but that at first they might in some measure have been induced to this from motives comparatively harmless, perceiving how exactly the Canaanitish traditions concerning paradise, coincided with, and were proofs of the truth and consistency of their own revelation. However, the abuse soon became flagrant;

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-they quickly forgot the Lord their God, who had planted with his own hand the garden of Eden, and thus suffered idolatrous worship to usurp his throne in their affections. Therefore they are spoken of, in the prophet, as a people continually provoking God to anger, by "sacrificing in gardens ;" and it is declared of them, that "they should be ashamed of the oaks "which they had desired, and confounded for "the gardens they had chosen." It is evident that the origin of these gardens was some paradisaical tradition; for we find from the same prophet, that "they had one tree in the "midst," which must have been planted there, as an idolatrous symbol of one or both of those famous trees, which grew in the midst of the garden of Eden.*

Another feature connected with these sacred enclosures, was an imitation of the cherubic

* Isaiah i. 29. lxv. 3. xvi. 17. See also Judges iii. 7.

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tabernacle on the east of Eden. This, I apprehend, was the origin of temples,* erected at first for the defence and security of the grove or garden, as the tent of the Cherubin, with the flaming sword, had been once pitched "to “ keep the way of the Tree of Life;” φυλασσειν την odov as the Septuagint has it, sufficiently demonstrating the precise meaning of ', which it is plain from the whole context, here signifies "a "watch or guard." These imitations of the cherubic tabernacle appear to have been originally towers, answering the end at first of protection, and afterwards of worship, or very

In

* But the shrine of the temple denominated by the priests Naos, had its origin from Nuç, Noas, or Noah, and the vessel, in which he was preserved. Hence it was, that these shrines were often found in the form of an ark, or ship; and we still call the centre of our churches the nave, from navis. later ages, when from the distance of time, many circumstances relative to a history prior to the deluge were forgotten, the temples themselves seem sometimes to have been built after the fashion of the ark; as that of Sesostris was at Thebes, in Egypt, reared by him in honour of Osiris, which was a title bestowed by the heathen on Noah; Nwɛ kaι Oσiρiç kaλεirai. Tzetzes Chiliad. 10 Hist. 335. See the account of this temple in Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. p. 52. The historian calls it a ship. The reader will please ever to bear in mind the constant confusion of diluvian with paradisaic traditions, which exists throughout mythology.-See also Pausanias, lib. vii. p. 534.

frequently uniting both these purposes together. From a tradition of the typical fire, "which "turned every way to keep the way of the Tree "of Life," these sacred edifices came to be considered as fire towers, and hence they had the titles of Tar, Tor, Turris, Tursis, Tauron, and Triton; all which are derivatives from the Chaldeen Tur, signifying a tower or place of defence, as also a temple, wherein the sacred fire was always kept burning, compounded with the radicals Is and On, the former similar to the Hebrew ws, and the latter a well-known title denoting fire, or the sun. Tursis is evidently a contraction of Tur-Isis, "the tower or

temple of the holy flame;" for Is, when compounded with itself and rendered Isis, means "lightning, or any thing superlatively bright.”* Now it is remarkable, that in the ancient poets and mythologists, whenever a Tursis is alluded to, the builders or inhabiters of it are described as having been some of those curious characters, which were either winged, or said to have been compounded of different animals, and which certainly were obscure representations of the Cherubim.

Thus in the Tursis men

Bryant, vol. i. p. 32.

*

tioned by Lycophron, Tupac amps, a siren dwelt, who was a compound figure, of which the upper part was a human form, and the tower winged. Again, in the same author, Cassandra in her apostrophe to Hector, assures him that he shall dwell, Nneous Makapor in the islands of the blessed, which were at Thebes, the Τύρσιν Καλυδν, said to have been built by Zethes and Amphion, or by Zethes and Calais, and who these were, Hyginust informs us; "Hi "capita pedesque pennatos habuisse feruntur, "crinesque cœruleos qui pervio äere usi sunt." There is a Tursis spoken of by Pindar also, in or near a Naσov Makapov, and the connection of this, and others of the same nature, with paradisaic traditions, will be more fully shewn hereafter. With regard to the Tursis at Thebes, we may moreover remark, that it was connected with the Sphinx, another compound figure, and a vestige of the Cherubim. However, the Tursis, in after ages, from being in its origin merely a defence or protection of the sacred grove or garden, under the circumstances above described, grew at length to be the most impor

* Lyc. Cassand. ver. 717, 1209, 1273. + Hyg. Fab. xiv. and xix. pp. 43–55. + Olymp. i 128.

tant part of the whole enclosure; and at last there came to be scarcely any portion at all of the consecrated paradise, but what was embraced within the actual walls of the temple; the inner court of which presented still the paradisaical tradition of "one tree in the "midst," which overshadowed what was at once the altar of atonement, and the asylum of those who fled thither for protection,* from either vengeance or justice. Sometimes these places were called the "Temples of Eden," as was that mentioned in the Prophet Amos;† and other instances might likewise be adduced. Strabo mentions the fact that in his day "all "sacred places, even where no trees were to be "seen, were still called groves;" and we even find that now and then, an image or representation of the grove or garden was consecrated and preserved in the temple,§ being probably a cast or impression in metal, like the coin of Antoninus Pius yet extant, which bears a

* Virg. Æneid. ii. 513.

+ Amos i. 5.

† Strabo αλση καλουσι τα ιερα παντα Geogr. ix. See, moreover, the learned notes, Fred. Sylburgh, in Dionys, Halicarn. Antiq. Rom. pp. 62 and 525; and the various authorities there cited.

§ 2 Kings xxiii. 6.