SACRED ISLES IN THE WEST. 61 



can be no doubt, says Cardinal Bellarmin ; for had he been trans- 

 lated into the celestial e'arth or paradise, he could never come back 

 to teach the Gentiles. This paradise, according to Jewish di-vines, or 

 :at least the Esse7iians, a roost religious, and also learned se6t of them, 

 was situated in the west, beyond the ocean. As the situation of Enoch, 

 tluring the flood, would have been at best, but a very disagreeable one; 

 learned commentators, like the Paurdnics, soon recolle61ed that this ter- 

 restrial paradise is by no means liable to the vicissitudes, which desolate 

 at certain periods the rest of the globe. Others thought that Enoch 

 was in that celestial earth or region above the highest mountains, and 

 near the path of the moon. Cornelius a Lapide places it in the air, 

 where Enoch lives, with many other devout people, among whom are 

 the nine persons, who never tasted death, according to the Talmudists. 

 The daughter of Pharao, and Ebedmelech, the negro, are among 

 them; but the Hindus reckon only seven of these privileged persons. 

 Those, who take the Mew Jerusalem in a material and literal sense, place 

 it in the third heaven or story, like the npper ^Swetam : others in the hea- 

 ven of the moon J but not in the moon, exa6lly like the celestial 'Swe'fam, 

 or \he Gdldcas oi the Hi?idus ; and Chandra-Maud' alamm Sanscrit impihes 

 the heaven, or rather the path of the moon^ 



^Swe'tam was denominated \Sdcam, from the 'Sacas or 'Sacs, who con- 

 quered that island, and settled there. The fa 61 of the 'Sacas being in pos- 

 session of that island at an early period, is mentioned in this same Pwdn'a, 

 called Vardha. Bhagava'n or Vishnu, is introduced mentioning seve- 

 ral privileged places in India, the wonderful powers and efficacy of which 

 are such, that, whatever man dies there, even accidentally, whether clean 

 or unclean, rigiiteous or unrighteous, immediately transmigrates into 



Q 



