Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1873-01-02
Where Was " Eden p

O1 OH 03uEy 08W1A08OO, U01Ox0 t0o
Royal Society OF London, on the site Of
the Garden Of Eden, Wa editorially
noticed in the Ledger. That distin-
guished Assyrian explorer asserted that
he had deciphered the word Eden" in
some hieroglyphios or cuneiform in
scziptions on the ruins Of Niuevah, and
that it was q name given to Babylon
whence, he argued, that the last named
ancient city had been built on the spot
where Adam and Eve resided in theil
state of innocence. This conclusion hal
not been generally received, notwith'
standing the high reputation of the
author. It il . matter of con.
troversy whether the sacred mar.
fative is to be understood literally OF
allegorically. The Rev. W. A. Scott,
Of San Francisco, in an interesting pa.
per just published, adopts the strictly
literal sense. His arguments are per.
haps as concise an embodiment of rea'
soning on behalf of the literal inter.
pretation of Scripture as could be fur.
nished. The first of them il that Eden
was the name of 4. country wherin
everything needful for man was pro.
duced, and that this name was descrip.
tive of it, signifying 80 land Of pleas
ure." The second is that the Garden
(or as the Greeks called, - Paridise'') },
WAS not Eden itself, but only . portion
of it. And thirdly, that this garden Wa
eastward of the writer's location; al
which appears to be clear, from
the text, And the L I'd God planted
garden, eastward, in Eden." The
author of the narrative, standing in Sy.
ria, would look eastsoard when he
turned in the direction of Mesopotami1
which Was the name of the country
lying between the rivers Euphrates and
Tigris- that this was the probable
site Of the cradle of the human race il
confirmed by what follows: s'And 6
rlver went out of [the country of Eden
to water the Garden [ParadiseE and
from thence it was parted, and became
into four heads" These heads OF
streams are respectively named Pison
Gihon, Hiddekel, and Euphratei
in the narrative. The first of these
Doctor Scott identifies with th,
Phases or Hays Of later times. III
source il near the head Of the Eu
pirates, and it flows northwesterly
seven hundred miles, into the Blacl
Sea. The second is the Araxes, which
rises ten miles from the sources of th,
Euphrates, and Aows . thousand miles
little north of east, into the Caspian
Sea. The third, ''the great river
which is Hiddekel," Daniel, Z. T. i
generally admitted to be the Tigris
And as to the fourth (Euphrstesl ther
is no dispute about it. Now all thes
four rivers have their sources in tn
highlands of Armenia, and, % it il
stated that it was "from the gar
den that they parted and becam
four heads" it follows that the site y
Paradise was that portion of Armenia
in which these sources are found. Dl
Scott advances three objections to tn
theory that the face of the Garden o
Eden was 20 changed by the flood - t
be irrecoverably lost. In the fira
place, ho says, it was by no means Gel
tain that Noah's food was universal, il
the strict meaning Of that word bu
in arguing this he violates his ow
principle of adhering to the strictl.
literal meaning Of the text, for 1t
clear from tho two narratives whic
are given in Genesis of th
Deluge that it was supposed to be un
versal-i. 9, extending all over th
surface of the globe. In the secon
place, he mentions thst the universal
ty of the Deluge 10 disputed by almol
every geologist. And in the thiz
place, and this 10 his strongest arg,
ment, it is inconsistent with the narr
tive, written after the Deluge, to %
that the site of Eden 10 lost The TO,
rivers remain, and their source
; can be seen in Armenia. WI
should they still exist ar
vet the Lind in which they spring ha,
; changed enti1ely2 Ararat is there
it was in the days of Noah, before Il
; flood. In truth, there has been no SUI
transformation of the soil ~ certa
theologians have asserted. Man h
} changed. This region lay between Il
Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sc
where now the Wild Arab roams abou
the cities are desolate, and the cru
despotism of the Persian and the Tu
"hath dried up realms to deserts.
! It must be said, however, that Il
wor.l Eden" (siguifying delights
! is manifestly used in various meanln
) in other portions of the Scripture
. sometimes to denote q people, again
2 denote u country, again as the nan
2 of IA person. and finally in number
wars inconsistent with the idea Of Ii
eral Interpretation.
PrAR trees are blossoming in Texa