XXVi INTRODUCTION. 



by them carried to great perfection ; and 

 Cyrus the younger was as celebrated for the 

 pleasure-gardens which he had himself planted 

 and cultivated in Lydia, as the elder Cyrus 

 was for the famous palace which he con- 

 structed at Persepolis. According to Chardin, 

 the gardens in the vicinity of Babylon abound- 

 ed with plants and flowers glowing with the 

 most lovely dyes, and conspicuous for their 

 dazzling brilliancy. 



Of the gardens of the ancient Israelites we 

 have fewer accounts than of those of other 

 eastern nations,, and for the same reason that 

 we have but few, if any, specimens of their 

 sculpture handed down to us. The Hebrew 

 nation being surrounded by idolaters on all 

 sides, it was necessary to prohibit not only all 

 familiar intercourse with the heathens, but to 

 guard particularly against the introduction of 

 their customs and habits, which must naturally 

 have been very alluring and seductive to the 

 idle and more profligate part of the Jewish 

 community ; and, as the gardens or sacred 

 groves of the heathen nations were generally 

 the scenes of their obscene revellings, such 



