96 THE GARDEN OF CYRUS 



Ion, and all the region about it, he found no circum- 

 scription to the eye of his ambition ; till over-delighted 

 with the bravery of this Paradise, in his melancholy 

 metamorphosis he found the folly of that delight, and 

 a proper punishment in the contrary habitation in 

 wild plantations and wanderings of the fields. 



The Persian gallants, who destroyed this monarchy, 

 maintained their botanical bravery. Unto whom we 

 owe the very name of Paradise, wherewith we meet 

 not in Scripture before the time of Solomon, and con- 

 ceived originally Persian. The word for that disputed 

 garden expressing, in the Hebrew, no more than a 

 field enclosed, which from the same root is content to 

 derive a garden and a buckler. 



Cyrus the Elder, brought up in woods and moun- 

 tains, when time and power enabled, pursued the dictate 

 of his education, and brought the treasures of the field 

 into rule and circumscription. So nobly beautifying 

 the hanging gardens of Babylon, that he was also 

 thought to be the author thereof. 



Ahasuerus (whom many conceive to have been 

 Artaxerxes Longi-manus), in the country and city of 

 flowers, and in an open garden, entertained his princes 

 and people, while Vashti more modestly treated the 

 ladies within the palace thereof. 



