The Adamus exul of Grotius; or The Prototype of Paradise Lost — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

@Qg PROLEGOMENA. is mentioned. He imagines that these four rivers are the Phasis, the Araxes,,the Tigris, and the Euphrates ; and consequently, that Paradise or Eden was placed in Colchis, now Mingrelia, near the mountains of Turcomania, and that .this was what gave rise to the fable of the golden fleece. Happily this question is now nearly set at rest, Hales and Faber having well nigh demonstrated that the situation of the Grarden, accord- ing to the Mosaic account, was in the mountainous region of Ararat in Armenia. And that consequently the first birth-place of mankind, and their first post-diluvian settlement, were closely approximated. This is an important discovery, as it confirms the fact that the great chains of . mountains and rivers were not essentially dislocated by the flood. A short statement of the critical situation of these rivers will give the reader the power of correcting the errors which yet remain undefeated. We cannot define the name of the river that watered the garden ; but it is not so difficult to specify its four main branches. The first is Phison (a term signifying a deep or overflowing river): this stream, which ig synonymous with Phasis, was the source of the Araxes, or Arras, which rises from Ararat, and separates Armenia from Media, and falls into the Caspian.. Bridges have been built over it several times, but all the art of man could never make them strong enough to resist the violence of its stream. Wherefore Virgil gives it this epithet : ‘“ Pontem indignatus Araxes.” Both gold and bdellium are found among the mountains that surround Havila Propria and Caspiana, through which it flows. Now Calmet has confounded this stream—the original Phasis or river —with that other Phasis more generally known by this name, which rises in the northern range of Caucasus. For this Faber substitutes the Absarus of Pliny, or Batoum of modern geographers, which rises in Armenia and runs into the Euxine sea. But its course, as Hales justly observes, “appears too short to encompass the whole land of Havila,” supposing, with him, Havila to denote Colchis, which was famed in ancient times for the abundance and excellence of its gold. “ The Araxes, therefore,” continues Hales (in confirmation of our.theory), “seems to have a better claim, which, rising in Armenia, runs by a more circuitous course into the Caspian sea, skirting the countries of Colchis and Georgia, which lie between the two seas, and might both have constituted the land of Havilah.” | But a more serious error than this respecting the Phison, is pointed out by Ralegh. It arose among those expositors who forgot to distinguish between Shem’s descendant and Joctan’s son Havila, to whom the regions of Caspiana, Colchis, and Upper Media were allotted, extending towards his brother Ophir’s Indian possessions, and that other Havila, the son of Cush. This has given rise to the gross blunders of Wells and his followers, now nearly exploded. The name of the second river is Gihon (an impetuous river), the ancient Choasper or Korun, which surrounds Asiatic Cush, or Ethiopia, and Susiana. Its waters are so sweet, say the ancients, that the kings of Persia drank no other; and in their expeditions they always carried some with them which had been previously boiled. ‘The numerous mistakes concerning this stream have arisen from COMME OOO <S