408 F A E 
Others, as Orjgen, Philo, &c. interpret the Scripture 
relation of paradife allegorically. 
“ Learned mbn,” fays Mr. Milne in his Phyfico-Theo- 
logical Lectures, “ have laboured to find out the fituation 
of paradife, which feems to be but a vague and uncertain 
inquiry; for the Mofaic defeription of it will not fait 
any place on the prefent globe. He mentions two rivers 
in its vicinity, viz. Pifon and Gihon, of which no veftiges 
can now be found. The other two fall remain, viz. the 
Hiddekel, fuppofed to be the Tigris, and the Euphrates, 
whofe ft reams unite together at a confiderable diftance 
above the Perfian gulf; in fome part of which, it is highly 
probable the happy garden once lay. This gulf is eaft- 
ward both of the land of Midian and the wildernefs of 
Sinai; in one of which places Mofes wrote his hiltory. 
But, fince the formation of this earth, it has undergone 
great changes from earthquakes, inundations, and many 
other caufes. The garden, however, feems to have been 
■a peninfula, for the way orentrar.ee into it is afterwards 
mentioned. We are told that a river went out of it; 
which, according- to fome, Ihould be rendered ‘ ran on the 
outlide of it,’ and thus gave it the form of a horfe-flroe: 
for, had the Euphrates run through the middle of the 
garden, one half of it would have been ufelefs to Adam, 
without a bridge or boat wherewith to have eroded it.’’ 
The learned authors of the Univerfil Hiftory, in their 
account of rarities natural and artificial in Syria, men¬ 
tion “a fpot which is ftill fhown as the place where once 
flood the Garden of Eden, or terreftrial paradife; and 
indeed it is in all refpe£is lb beautiful and rich, and yields 
fo delightful a profpedt from the adjacent hills, that there 
is hardly another place in the world that has a fairer title 
to the name it bears. Its proximity to Dainafcus, the 
capital of Syria, near the fountain-head of the Jordan; its 
fituation between the Tigris or Hiddekel, the Euphrates, 
the Phafis or Phifon, the Araxes or Gihon (which iaft lias 
thofe names from its vaft rapidity above all other known 
rivers), its bordering upon the land of Chus, famed for 
its fine gold ; all thele and many other marks lpecified by 
Mofes, together with its charming and furprifing fruitful- 
nefs, and conftant verdure, have induced a great number 
of commentators to fettle that celebrated and fo much 
fought-after fpot here. 
But the inoil common and probable opinion is that of 
Hopkinfon, Huet, Bochart, &c._who place paradife in 
Chaldea between the confluence of the Euphrates and 
Tigris, and their feparation. Here we find two of Mofes’s 
rivers by name ; and below, we find the ftream was.parted 
into two large divifions, the eaftern one of which may 
have been the Gihon, and the weftern the Pifon. Ethi¬ 
opia, Gne of the countries which thefe rivers walked, was 
inconteftibly Arabia Deferta; for Mofes calls his wife, 
who was of this country, an Ethiopian; and Havilah, 
the other country, inuft have been the Cimfiftan in Perils ; 
■where were anciently found gold, bdellium, the onyx, &c. 
mentioned in Mofes’s defeription, The difficulty in this 
•fyftem is, that Mofes fpeaks exprefsly of four rivers, each 
..of which, had its fource in the garden of Eden ; whereas 
.this gives us only two rivers, which were feparated into 
four branches. 
Paradise is alfo ufed in the New Teftament, and by 
Chriftian writers, for the final habitation of the blefled, 
or Heaven.—-Heaven is called a paradife , becaufe of the 
complete happinefs, manifold delights, and intimate fel- 
lowfnip with God, that are there enjoyed. Brown's Diet, 
of the Bible.- —Hence, 
Paradise is likewife taken for any place of felicity.— 
If ye fhould lead her into a fool’s paradife, it were very 
grofs behaviour. Shakefpeare's Horn- and Juliet. 
Why, Nature, bower the fpirit of a fiend 
In mortal paradife of Arch fweet flelh. Shaliefpearo. 
Paradise (Mahometan). See Mahometanism, vol, 
xiv. p. 14.1. 
FAR 
PAR'ADTSE, n townfhip of America, in Pennfylvarua, 
in the county of York, containing 1548 inhabitants. 
PAR'ADISE (Bird of). See, Paradise a. 
PARADISE SOD'ND, a bay on the fouth-weft part of 
Placentia, on the coaft of Newfoundland. Eat. 47. 30. N. 
Ion. 54. 15. W. 
PARADISE'A, f. The Bird of Paradise; a genus of 
the order picse, of which the generic characters are— 
Bill covered with a belt of downy feathers at the bale; 
feathers of the fides very long; two of the tail-feathers 
naked; feet large and ftrong. Thefe birds chiefly 
inhabit New Guinea, from which they migrate in the 
dry feafon into the neighbouring iflands. Their fea¬ 
thers are ufed in thofe countries as ornaments for the 
head-drefs; and the Japanefe, Chinefe, and Perfians, 
import them for the lame purpofe. Among the latter, 
the principal people attach thefe brilliant collections of 
plumage, not only to their own turbans, but to the 
houfings and harnefs of their horfes. 
1, Paradifea apoda, the greater bird of paradife: chef- 
nut; neck beneath gold-green; feathers on the fides 
longer than the body; the two middle tail-feathers long 
and briftly. (There is a variety which is lefs, and the 
body above is yellow; the feathers on the fides are yel- 
lowiih-white.) The two long tail-feathers are naked, 
ftrajght, and tapering to the tip ; the tail, as it is impro¬ 
perly called, is nothing more than the long feathers of 
the back ami fides. Thefe birds are found in the Molucca 
iflands, and thofe furrounding New Guinea, particularly 
in Aroo, where they arrive with the wefterly or dry mon- 
loon, and whence they return to New Guinea, when the 
eafterly or wet monfoon lets in. They are leen going and 
returning in flights of thirty or forty, conduced by a 
leader, which flies higher than the reft. During this flight 
they cry like darlings. By a fudden drifting of the wind, 
their long fcapuiar feathers are fometimes fo dilhevelled 
as to preclude flying, when they fall to the ground, or are 
loft in the water. In the former cafe they cannot rife 
again into the air, without gaining an eminence; and are 
fecured by the natives, and killed on the fpot, as they 
cannot be preferved alive by art. They are likewife 
caught with birdlime, or (hot with blunt arrows, or are 
fometimes intoxicated with the berries of Menifpermum 
cocculus put into the water which they are accuftomed to 
drink. Their real food is not known with certainty. 
According to fome authors, they feed on the red berries 
of the Ficus benjamina, or waringa-tree; according to 
others, they are particularly fond of nutmegs; fome 
aflert they live on large butterflies and moths, and others 
that they chafe and devour final 1 birds. 
No bird has given rife to more fables than this. Its 
refidence was faid to be in the earthly paradife. It was 
believed by the credulous and ignorant, that it lived alone 
upon the air and the dew ; that it had no entrails, nor feet 5 
but remained perpetually floating upon the air, while 
fleeping, as well as while awake ; while hatching and 
laying, as well as while procreating its young. Inftead 
of a ftomach and inteftines, which, to fo extraordinary a 
feeder, would have been ufelefs, the cavity of its abdomen 
was faid to be filled with fat. The truth is, the hunters 
who procure and fell thefe birds, take out their entrails, 
the better to preferve and carry them, and perhaps too 
with a view to perpetuate the belief of thofe tables, which 
they have found fo beneficial to their trade. 
If any thing could give an air of probability to the per¬ 
petual flying of the bird of paradife, it might "be its extra¬ 
ordinary lightnefs, A bird no larger than a thrulh, 
fwelled to an immenfe bulk by its feathers, is rendered 
fpecifically lighter than any other, “ Thefe feathers 
(fays Vaillant) proceed from the fides, pals beyond the 
tail, with which they are blended, and form behind it a 
mafs of extreme tenuity, light and tranfparent as air, 
Naturalifts diftinguilh them by the epithet J'uhalariun, 
becaufe they have their origin under the wings. Their 
total 
