THE GARDEN OF CYRUS 95 



most flourished in those quarters. And since the ark 

 of Noah first touched upon some mountains of Armenia, 

 the planting art arose again in the east, and found its 

 revolution not far from the place of its nativity, about 

 the plains of those regions. And if Zoroaster were 

 either Cham, Chus, or Mizraim, they were early 

 proficients therein, who left, as Pliny delivereth, a work 

 of Agriculture. 



However, the account of the pensile or hanging 

 gardens of Babylon, if made by Semiramis, the third 

 or fourth from Nimrod, is of no slender antiquity ; 

 which being not framed upon ordinary level of ground, 

 but raised upon pillars, admitting under-passages, we 

 cannot accept as the first Babylonian gardens, but a 

 more eminent progress and advancement in that art 

 than any that went before it ; somewhat answering or 

 hinting the old opinion concerning Paradise itself, with 

 many conceptions elevated above the plan of the 

 earth. 



Nebuchodonosor (whom some will have to be the 

 famous Syrian king of Diodorus) beautifully repaired 

 that city, and so magnificently built his hanging 

 gardens, 1 that from succeeding writers he had the 

 honour of the first. From whence overlooking Baby- 



1 Josephus. 



