82 A NATURAL HISTORY 



Paradise, in Plato'?, Sympopum^ \% "Jupiter ^ Garden^ and 

 alfo is the Pattern of A!ci?ious's Orchards^ and the Hefperid^s : 

 The Golden- Apples kept by a Dragon, were the forbidden Fruit 

 in Paradife : The Fable oi Hercules s killing the Serpent of the 

 Hefperides^ is borrowed from the Seed of the Woman, breaking 

 the Serpent's Head. 



What is Ovid's In nova fcrt animm ? but an imperfe(5l 

 Tranfcript of Mofess Journal of the Creation, ^c. 'Tis faid by 

 Mofes, 'The Spirit of God moved on the Face of the Waters ; hence 

 Ihales^ makes Water to be the firft Principle of all natural Bodies : 

 His Reafons are deliver'd by Plutarch. Homer fays, All things 

 are made of the Ocean. The Chaos, whereof all things were 

 made, according to Heftod, was Water. Orpheus fays, all things 

 were generated of the Ocean *. Plaids, Atlanticus, what is it but 

 a Fable ? built upon Mofess Hiftory of 'Noah^ and the Flood, 

 and the Caufes that brought it upon the World. 



What is the Bacchus of the Heathen, but the Noah of Mo- 

 fes? formerly called Boachus, for Noachus, as might eafily be, 

 miftaking the Hebrew Letters B and N, which are not very much 

 unlike. By Janus and Saturn, Noah is meant ; and fome take 

 Jupiter to be Japhet, for tho' Jovis, and the other oblique Cafes 

 are derived from Jehovah, yet Jupiter is another. The Fable 

 of FItaven being ftormed by the Giants, arofe from what the 

 Builders of the Tower of Babel faid, viz. Let us build a City and 



a Tower, whofe Top may reach unto Heaven But no Man 



imitates the Scriptures more than Homer, who was an inquilitive 

 Traveller into all Countries. But to proceed to the Pagan Ac- 

 count of Paradife, and the Fall of Man : 



A Certain Author relates a Difcourfe between Midas 

 the Phrygian, and Silenus who v/as the Son of a Nymph, inferior 

 by Nature to the Gods, fuperior to Men and Death, thus : 



S ILE N US told Midas, that Europe, Afa^ and Africa were 

 Ulaiids, furroundcd by Water : that there was but one Continent 

 only, which was beyond this World, in which, among other 

 Rarities, were two great Rivers^ whofe Banks were covered with 

 Trees, one of them was called the River of Pkafure, and the 

 other the River of Grief, .... 



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