they were both one and the same, and Typhon, by a slight transposition, is none other than Python, as was observed before, the appellation under which we most generally discover the mythological monster which tradition told the heathen had been the source of all evil, and was to be vanquished only by the Son of the Supreme Being in a human form. Now the very name Pytho, or Python, evidently designates the great deceiver of the world, from MID Pyth, or Pythe, "to overpersuade,* or "deceive." When the damsel who followed the apostle Paul, is said to have been "pos"sessed with a spirit of divination," (certainly a spirit of the devil,) it is named in the original “ πνευμα ΠΥΘΩΝΟΣ a spirit of Python;” manifestly shewing that the pagan Python was none other than a traditionary memorial of "that "old serpent, called the devil and satan,‡ "which deceived the whole world." But the serpent of the garden of the Hesperides had also another name, that of Ladon, which is the contraction of El-Adon, "the god of the garden "of Eden;" which clearly proves the whole to

* See Spearman's Letters on the LXX. p. 85.

† Acts xvi. 16.

Revel. xx. 2.

G

Πλαζομενοι ιξονδ ιερον πεδον, ω ενι ΛΑΔΩΝ
Εισετι που χθιζον παγχρύσεα ρυετο μῆλα,
Χωρω εν Ατλαντος χθονιος οφις αμφι δε νυμφαι
Εσπεριδες ποιπνυον εφιμερον αειδουσαι

Δη τοτε γ' ηδη κεινος υφ' Ηρακλῆι δειχθεις
Μειλεον βεβλητο ποτε στυπος.*

Then came they to the sacred place, where kept.
The serpent Ladon watch, nor ever slept ;
In the Atlantian land the garden lies,
And there the apples hung, a golden prize ;
About the tree the wary dragon wound,
And the Hesperides were heard around;
'Till great Alcides, son of Jove and fame,
Engag'd the serpent, and at length o'ercame.

Belonging to the consecrated garden was a temple, kept by a priestess, according to some; and according to others, by three nymphs, called the Hesperides. Here, also, were the daughters of Phorcus connected with the Gorgons, all compounded figures, who had the custody of the sacred fire, which was considered as the protection of the enclosure. Indeed, by more than one author, this same Phorcus was thought to have been the father of

* Apoll. Rhod. apud. Nat. Com. lib. vii. 7. p. 217.

the serpent slain by Hercules. At all events, we find here the usual vestiges of the cherubic guard, however mutilated and distorted. Scylla was by some considered as having been one of the Gorgons who kept the consecrated garden, and so was Medusa. They all had golden wings, as the tradition reported, as also brazen hands, with the teeth of various animals. Sometimes Hercules is said to have slain the serpent with his club, which is to be identified with the sacred Branch, as has been already mentioned. After his victory over the giants, he is affirmed to have consecrated it to Mercury, when, on being thrust into the ground, it grew into a mighty tree.*

There were, also, in several parts of the east, paradisi dedicated to Bacchus. The god himself, as Philostratus writes, "enclosed a large "tract of land, cultivated it as a garden, and "planted planes and laurels." Near it was a temple, and the presiding priest and priestess were a man and his wife, clothed in skins, and who lived upon the fruits of the garden. This is said to have happened in Nisa, a mountain of India, though there were also many other places of this name.† Bacchus is declared by

*Nat. Com, lib. vii. 1. 206. † Bryant. Anal. vol. iv.

p. 251.

Phornutus to have been the first planter of trees, and cultivator of gardens; and this was the case during a sort of golden age, before war and destruction had made their appearance in the world. The obscene rites of the Phallus, which often occurred in these gardens, cannot but have arisen from a perhaps obscure tradition of the holy institution of marriage, which the polluted minds of men abused to some of the worst purposes of idolatry. Bacchus himself is represented naked, in unhallowed allusion to that pure and blissful state of our first parents in Eden, when "they were both naked, the "man and his wife, and were not ashamed." His car is represented as drawn by lions and leopards, as well as other beasts of prey; representing, hieroglyphically, the tradition which the heathen had of the paradisaical state of the animal creation.† Here, also, we meet with the serpent; for those who partook of the ceremonies used to carry serpents in their hands, and with horrid screams called upon "Eva!"Eva!"-They then crowned themselves with these reptiles, still indulging in the same frantic exclamations. Epiphanius, Clemens of

De Nat. Deor. p. 81.

+ Id. p. 85. The same also is said of Rhea and Cybele.

Alexandria,* and many others, are all of decided opinion that this horrid invocation had relation to the great mother of mankind, "who being deceived, was in the transgression."

66

It is observable that most of these gardens were oracular. There is, perhaps, no desire of knowledge more natural to man in his present fallen state, than that of the knowledge of futurity. Hence it has proved the aim of a vast majority of minds, in all ages and parts of the world, to pry into futurity. And yet it

must be owned that the practice has not been, nor indeed ever can be, conducive to the real happiness of mankind; and it is undoubtedly to be traced up to the bitter fruit of the "tree "of knowledge of good and evil," that the human race have ever followed, or been desirous to follow, a course of conduct so decidedly opposed to their actual welfare and happiness.† Yet it will be found in the end a singular proof of the once happy existence of man in a paradisaical state. It has ever been a received opinion, even amongst heathen nations, that there

*

'Epiphan. tom. ii. lib. iii. p. 1092. Clem. Alex. Cohort. p. 11. Euseb. Prep. Evan. lib. ii. 3.

+ Il est vrai que le desir de le connoitre est une des plus anciennes maladies de l'esprit humain, comme elle en est une des plus funestes! Voy. de Jeun. Anach. tom. iii. p. 393.