the name Gadir,* according to the heathen accounts, was derived; and we discover almost invariably that all these traditionary representations of paradise have some reference to a defence of the same kind.

Not far from Gades there was another sacred enclosure of a similar nature, called by the Phoenicians wwn Tursis, which in after times became corrupted into Tartessus.† It was an

* Macrob. Saturnal. lib. i. cap. 20. See also Avienus, Pliny, Solinus, Isidorus, and Hesychius, cited by Bochart. Canaan. p. 673. This learned man thinks, however, that though the term Gadir signifies "locum undique septum ;" yet that the defence alluded to was that of the ocean, looking only to the sacred island mentioned in the description. With great deference to this opinion, the elements of which the term is composed, and the same name being often conferred upon places inland, seem to declare the contrary; and putting all the circumstances together, the protection of the sacred fire or light, and the host of the Cherubim, appear to be pointed at in this remarkable title. Consult Parkhurst. Heb. Lex. under the words 7, 8, and 18. The name Gadir occurs several times in Scripture. Joshua xii. 13. and three in chap. xv. 2 Chron. xviii. 18. LXX. Gen. xxxv. 16. Sulpic. Sever. lib. i. cap. 16. and the notes on the place in the var. edit.

+ Pomp. Mela, lib. iii. cap. 1. Strabo, lib. iii. pp. 140— ́ 148. Pausanias in Eliacis. Ptolem. Avien. Bochart, p. 669. Stephan. ex Mss.

island in the middle of a lake called Avernus,* formed by the widening of the river Botis. At no great distance from this last was another island, also bearing the same name, although also called Erythia, a corruption of UrThur, or the tower of light or fire. The fables of Geryon, and other traditionary features of paradise, were likewise connected with it; while not far off was an ancient high-place, consecrated to the rites of the serpent, called Colobona; and all these paradisaical enclosures had the same appellations of Tursis, Gadir, and Kades indifferently conferred upon them.† We have also seen that one of them was in the centre of a lake Avernus, which decidedly connects it with the Hades or future world of antiquity; and which, I will now shew, was mainly founded upon memorials of the garden of Eden, although interspersed with diluvian and other traditions.

* Η δε Ταρτησος Ιβηρική πολις περι την Αορνον λίμνην Schol. Aristop. in Ran.

+ Tartessum Hispaniæ civitatem quam nunc Tyrii mutato nomine Gaddir habent. Sallust in Fragm. et Avienus in oris maritimis.

Hic Gaddir urbs est dicta Tartessus prius,

Boch, 673.

It was my custom, during a residence of some weeks at Naples, to pass several hours of almost every day, in exploring the neighbour hood of Puteoli and Baiæ. I was induced to do this, from their remarkable scenery having been once the scite of the most interesting heathen mysteries. Here, for many ages, was practised a scenical representation of those memorials of paradise, which tradition had preserved to the pagan postdiluvian world; and with these, they perhaps naturally enough, intermingled their ideas of a future state, conceived by them to be nearly analogous to that original state of innocence, wherein man had first enjoyed communion with God, before sorrow was known, or sacrifice had become essential to typify that great and holy victim, through whom alone "he could regain the "blissful seat." Traditions of all this appear to have been embodied and hieroglyphically represented to the sight, in a great part of the rites and ceremonies practised on the coast of Campania. The whole shore, from time immemorial, has been affected by earthquakes, volcanic action, and other natural phenomena of the most extraordinary kind. It was,

moreover, at one period covered with impervious forests ;

Ακτή τε λαχεια και αλσεα Περσεφονείης
Μακραι τ'αιγειροι και ιτεαι ωλεσικαρποι*

The barren trees of Proserpine's black woods,
Poplars and willows trembling o'er the floods.

This gloomy aspect, heightened by the rough and hideous appearance of the shore, contributed, in no small degree, to invest it with horror. The few, perhaps, who first explored it, discovered amid these lonely shades, nothing but rocky chasms, lakes of naphtha and smoking stufo, boiling springs of sulphur, having their sources heated by subterranean fires, and the whole country agitated with volcanic convulsions;

Sub pedibus mugire solum, et juga cæpta moveri
Silvarum, visæque canes ululare per umbram ;
Ibant obscuri solâ sub nocte per umbras
Perque domos Ditis vacuas et inania regna.
Quale per incertam lunam sub luce malignâ
Est iter in silvis ubi cælum condidit umbrâ
Jupiter, et rebus nox abstulit atra colorem.†

Now this was just the spot for superstition to fix upon; and here, accordingly, were her

* Hom. Odyss. K.-509, † Virg. Æneid. vi. 256 to 272.

rites established, awful and often cruel in the extreme, yet displaying traces of truth, however obscure, and half obliterated. Caverns, groves, lakes, rocks, high-places, and mountains were ever of old the usual haunts of priests, and the places which they selected for their idolatrous worship.* But when all these features were found combined in one country, then the situation it afforded became invested with peculiar sanctity. The number of votaries increased; colleges of hierophants were formed, into whose society none were admitted without passing through some dreadful ordeal, by way of initiation. Certain mysterious ceremonies were practised in commemoration of great events which were passed, and of which sometimes a part seemed typical of something to come. No means were omitted which might tend to increase that reverential awe with which all looked upon those fearful rites, the real purport of which was known only to a favoured few-and the "religio loci" acquired in every age new horrors, in proportion as distance of time or place removed these fearful mysteries from their original institution, or separated them from other parts of the world.

* Heinsii Excurs. iv. ad lib. vii. Æneid. p. 131, et passim.