The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1869-07-16
FROM the Philadelphia Ledger.
TIE GARDEN OF EDEN.

loyal Asiatic Society. At meeting
of that society held in London, on the
3lst of May. at which he was inaugural
ed, he made speech, in which he cN-
pressed his conviction that the Baby1oA
MAN writings and monuments now il
the possession of the British museum
would turn out TO be intimately connect
ed with the earliest Biblical writings,
and that. before long. the whole of the
early history given III the Book Of Gens
esis, from the time of Abraham down.
wards, would be found existing in its
original form among these primitive
stone records. lie also announced that
in short time he should, submit to the
society evidence that the name Garden
of Eden" was the old and natural name
of Babylon. lie stated that there were
Babylonian documents which gave an
exact geographical description of that
Paradise in which the opening scene OF
human history is laid, answering pre-
. ciSely to the topography and the.geodess
Zeal particulars of Holy Writ. In them
lac has found the four rivers, or rather,
the four branches of 1.-The river which
went out of Eden to water. the garden"
mentioned by the very Same names,
Pison. Gihion, Hidckel and Euphrates.
He has also met with accounts of the
flood, and the buildin" OF the Tower OF
Babel. which bear with singular direct
ness and value upon the Biblical narrIs
tive of those events. If he should re.
alizc all that he anticipates, he will have
given to the world one of the most i'll
teresting archaeological and antixuarian
discoveries ever made. Among Bibli-
cal critics, il has long been a matter of
discussion whence came the two differ
ent accounts ofthc creation of the world,
of man, and of his history from his ems
anation from the hands of his Creator
81. Ill,
/ which form the first nine chapters of
Genesis. These two narratives have
/ been distinguished respectively as the
| Jehovah and the Elohim records, be-
cause in the one the Deity is spoken of
| as Jehovah, and in the other IN the plu-
&! raj form as Elohim. Probably Sir1cn-
ry Rawlinson's discoveries will throw
/ light OH the subject, and thus clear up
the obscurity which hangs over that pop
ton of the sacred text. If this should
be the case, he will be benGfactor to
theology and Biblical lore, as well as to
history and archaeology. There is moth
ing amazingiin the fact that the sculpture
ed archives of Babylonia, necessarily the
chief memorial of tradition and belief
among the Chaldeans, should lie reflect
ed in the annals of a race which came
forth from Chaldea; still, the prospect
of comparing the originals with the de-
thentic sources from which Elohist and
Jchovist drew their statements, is one
which will naturally excite vivid cXpec-
tations among Biblical scholars, and
cannot fail TO arOdse very general Curl
i.Osity. The cause of religion has always
been advanced by discoveries in science,
notwithstanding the outcries made
against them by well-meaning but rath-
or shortsighted persons. Truth eau
never gainsay truth, nor can we go back
to the practice, whether political or re-
ligipus, which is said to have laid hands
on Calico for asserting that the Garth
moved. Nevertheless it moves" Is
true of everything as well as OF the PLAN
ct we live on; and if these now discoY-
cries, or any others, interpret to Us, in o
positive and simple sense, legends which
have been lost in the sacred mist OF ira
dition, the Biblical account cannot but
gain in clearness, while the intent which
dictated the record must be carried out
! with increased dircetness and force.
| The character of all such investigations
has ever been in the highest sense scrip
tural and Christian. 1t may turn out
| that the Chaldeans had traditions of
Eden, of the Flood, and of Babel, aud
that Abraham brought them with hin
from "Ur of the Chaldees," to Canaan,
and handed them down to his posterity,
and these traditions may also have
found their way into other lands LONG
before Abraham's time, which would
partly account for their universally.
Let us, at any rate, know what the Bab-
ylonian records can tell about the GAR
den of Eden. If HiddekGl, Pison and
| Gihiou can be identified without geo.
! graphical bcwildePmcnt, let it, by all
means, be done. We have our doubts
about the probability of this Eqphrates
| remains, but it seems strange that the
three other rivers should have disap-
pcared so completely in a country where
no natural convulsiOns have taken place
within recorded history. Neither the
/ heat nor the sand have been able to OBJ
] literats the Euphrates. and it is difficult
| to imagine that they could have obliter-
atcd the Others, unless they were insig-
! nificant streams. But the turn which
! Sir Henry Rawlinsom has given the
meaning of the term Garden of Edcn,"
/ thro slight on that passage in Isaiah
! (chap. 81, v, l2), '.Haye the gods of the
nations delivered them which my faith
ers have destroyed, as Gozan and HaraH
and Rezaph, and the children Of Eden
which were in Telassar?" And on that
! in Ezekiel (chap. %, v. 49,. Thou hast
! been in Eden, the garden ofGod."