ON THE GARDEN OF EDEN. 85 
called forth by Divine Will. As I have, however, to enter 
more fully hereafter into the history of Terah’s migration, 
‘I will begin with the disputed site of the Garden of Eden 
and explain the geographical position of the four rivers 
mentioned in Genesis. 
It is not easy to determine which of the three ideas is 
most fantastic: the stretch of pious imagination of the 
Fathers who gave a mystical interpretation to the existence 
of Eden, the notion of Josephus and others that it denoted 
the whole sphere of the earth, or the modern thought that 
Paradise was situated in the hottest part of Southern Meso- 
potamia, and the rivers Pison and Gihon were merely 
canals or artificial cuttings from the Euphrates in ancient 
Babylonia. 
I have, in the first place, to describe the different ideas 
that have been mooted with reference to the lost site of 
Paradise ; secondly, to contest certain theories which have 
been adduced in support of the Mesopotamian theory, and 
lastly, to try and prove from my geographical knowledge 
that the only part of the world that could be assigned for 
the ancient site of the Garden of Eden would be the country 
that surrounds Lake Wan, in Armenia. 
The site of the Garden of Eden has been located by 
different writers in several parts of the eastern hemisphere, 
from Scandinavia to the South Sea Islands, from China to 
the Canary Isles, and from the Mountains of the Moon to 
the coasts of the Baltic. The great rivers of Europe, Asia, 
and Africa have in turn been brought forward as the identical 
two of the four sacred rivers, the Pison and the Gihon, and 
it may be that we have yet to learn that the Garden of Eden 
was situated either in America or in the Antipodes ! 
Before enumerating the different ancient and modern 
opinions as to the locality of Paradise, it is necessary that I 
should quote what the most primitive record discloses to us 
regarding the Garden of Eden, in order that we might judge 
how far the different opinions agree therewith. 
The allusion to the four sacred rivers in the first book of 
the Pentateuch (Genesis ii, 10 to 14) reads thus:—‘ And a 
river went out of Eden to water the Garden, and from thence 
it was parted and became into four heads. The name of the 
first is Pison; that is it which compasseth the whole land of 
Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is 
good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. And the name 
of the second river is Gihon; the same is it that compasseth 
the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is 
