Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1869-07-16
From the Philadelphia Ledger.l
EDEN.
Babylon Turns Out to he the Garden
OF Eden.

There seems to be reasonable ex-
pectation of the discovery of the site OF
the Garden of Eden, if we may credit
Sir Henry Rswlinson, the distinguished
Assyrian explorer, and president of the
Royal Asistic Society. At meeting of
that society, held in London, on the 3lst
of May, at which he was inaugurated,
he made speech, in which he express
ed his conviction that the Babylonian
writings and monuments, now in the
possession of the British Museum, would
turn out to be intimately connected with
the earliest Biblical writings, and that,
before long, the whole of the early his
tory given in the Book of Genesis, from
the time of Abraham, downwards. would
be found existing iD its original form
among these primitive stone records
He also announces 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.
He stated that there were Babylonian
documents which gave an exact geo
graphical description of that Paradise in
which the opening scene of human his
tory is laid, answering precisely to the
topography and the geodesical particulars
Of Holy Writ. In them he has found
the four rivers. or, rather, the four
brsuches Of .the river which went out
of Eden to water the garden" mention
ed by the very same names, Pison, Gil
him. Hdekel and Euphrates He has
also met with accounts of the fnoi, and
the building OF the Tower Of Babel,
which bear with singular directness and
value upon the Biblical narrative of
those events. If he should realize all
that he anticipates. be will have given to
the world one of the most interesting
archaeological and antiquarian discoveries
ever made Among Biblical critics, it
has long been matter of discussion
whence came the two different accounts
of the creation of the world, of man,
and of bis history from his emanation
from the hands of his Creator down to
his destruction by the deluge. which
forms the first nine chapters of Genesis.
These two narratives have been distin
guised respectively as the Jehovah and
the Elohim records, because in the one
the Deity is spoken1of as Jehovah. and
in the other in the plural form as Flo
him. Probably Sir Henry Rawlinson's
discoveries will throw light on the sub
jest. and thus clear up the obscurity
which hangs over that portion of the
sacred text. If this should be the case,
her will be benefactor TO theology
and Biblical lore, as well AS to history
and archaeology. There is nothing
amazing in the fact that the sculptured
archives of Babylonia, necessarily the
chief memorial of tradition and belief
among the Chaldeans, should be reflected
in the annals of race which came forth
from Chaldea; still, the prospec, of com
pairing the originals with the derived
reports, and of finding the authentic
sources from which Elohist and Jehovist
drew their statements, is one which will
naturally excite vivid expectations among
Biblical scholars, and cannot fail to
arouse very general curiosity. The
cause of religion has always been ad-
vanc-d by discoveries in science, not
witqstanding the outcries made against
them by well meaning but short-sighted
persons. Truth can never gsinsay truth,
nor can we go back to the practice,
whether political or religious, which is
said TO have laid haLds on Galilee for
asserting that the earth moved. "Nev-
ertheless it moves" IS true of everything
as well as of the planet we live on; and
if these new discoveries, or any Others,
interpret to us. in positive and simple
sense, legends which have been lost IN
sacred mist of tradition, the Biblical
account cannot but gain in clearness,
while the intent which dictated the rec
ord must be carried out with increased
directnrss and force The character of
all such Investigations has ever "een in
the highest sense Scriptural and Chris
tan. 1t may turn out that the Chal
deans had traditions of Eden, Of the
Flood and of Babel, and that Abraham
brought hem with him from "Ur of the
Chaldees," to Canaan, and handed them
down to bis po>terity, and these tradi.
tons may also have found their way into
other lands long before Abrsham's time.
which would partly account for their
universally. Let us, at any rate, know
what the Babylonian records can tell
about the Garden Of Eden If Hidekel,
Pison and Gihion can be identified with.
out geographical bewilderment. let it. by
all means. be done. We have our
doubts about the probability Of this
Euphrates remains; but it seems strange
that the three other rivers should have
disappeared so completely in country
VIII, re- no natural commissions have taken
place within recorded history. Neither
the heat nor the sand have been able to
obliterate tee Euphrstes. and it is diff
Gull to imagine that they could have
obliteratsd The others. unless they were
Insignificant streams. But the turn
which Sir Henry Rawlinson has given to
the meaning Of the term "Garden of
Eden," throws ligat on that passage in
Isaiah (chap. 81. veose l2). "Have the
gods of the nations delivered them which
my fathers have destroyed, as Gozan and
Haran and Rezaph. and the children of
Eden which were in Telassar?' And on
that in Ezekiel (chap. %, verse l3),
"Thou hast been 10 Eden, the Garden Of