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    ( Gen . vii . 11 , viii . 2 ; 2 Kings vii . 19 ) . There also are the magazines of the snow , hail , &c . ( Job xxxviii . 22 , &c ) , and above the celestial aea are the dwelling and throne of Jehovah ( Ps . xxvii . 3 , 10 , civ . 3 , cxlwiii . 41 ) . Such at least is the usual representation , besides which the heaven is also called an outstretched awning ( Isa . xl . 22 ) , and the correct view is given of the origin of clouds and rain in the Jehovah document at the beginning of Genesis ( ii .

    6 ) , and in the speeches of Elihu ( Job xxxvi . 27 , &c ) . The representation of several heavens , three for example ( 2 Cor . xii . 2 ) , is a new conception . Lastly , deep under the earth and the sea ( Job xxvi . 5 ) was the kingdom of the shades pNttf ) , with gates ( Isa . xxxviii . 10 ) , but not rivers , as some have been disposed to infer from a false interpretation of Ps . xviii . 5 , and from the analogy of the Grecian Orcus . In the middle of the inhabited earth the Hebrew placed his own country , and he made Jerusalem the middle point

    of it ( Ezek . v . 5 ) , as the Arabians made Mecca , the monks of the East Mount Sinai , the Greeks Delphi ( Cic . de Divin . 11- 56 ) , the Persians and Indians the sacred mountain of the Gods , Albordsh and Mem . The Bible , indeed , also mentions this mountain of the Gods , spoken of in the mythical geography of Asia , and calls it the mountain of assembly ( "ty * D " ) n , Isa . xiv . 13 ) , but places it in the distant Worth , and the high mountains of Caucasus appear to have occasioned this idea . But , as the Persians supposed

    the other mountains to proceed from this primitive mountain , and the other rivers from one primitive river , * so the mythical geography of the Hebrews supposes the four principal rivers of the known earth ,+ namely , the Tigris , Euphrates , Gihon ( probably the NileJ , and Pison ( probably the GangesJ > to proceed from a primitive source in the paradisiacal region of Eden , a

    representation originating in an imperfect knowledge of the circuit and course of these rivers , to which , besides the conceptions of the Persians already referred to , parallels are found even among the Greeks—the opinion , for example , that the Nile and the 'Euphrates are one river , the former only a continuation of the latter ( Paus . Corinth . 2 ) , or that the Rhine and Rhone are one stream dividing itself into several arms . J

    Biblical geography extends eastward as far the Indians ( nn o ^ iai JJL £ Hindu , Esther i . 1 , viii . 9 ) and the Chinese ( D' 3 'D Isa . xlii . 12 , in Aramaean and Arabic . y j ^ ^ ) . It places in the North the mythical people Gog and Magog , ' which some time before the corning of the Messiah is to afflict the Jewish people by an invasion and to suffer a defeat in Palestine ( Ezek . xxxviii . 39 , comp . the mythi of the Koran , Sur . xviii . 94—99 , xxi . 96 ) . Of the West with its islands and coasts ( D'H *> K Isa . xi . 11 , xxiv . 15 , Ps . lxxii . 10 ) only a few names were known , of which the furthest point was Tarsis ( Tartessus ) in Spain , celebraied as the principal aim of the Phoenician commerce in the Mediterranean sea . That somewhat rude

    conceptions of the structure of the universe remained among the Jews even to a late period , appears from the book of Enoch , in which the prophet is carried

    * See Bundehesch 7 . Compare Wahl ' s altes u . ueues Vorder . u . Mittel . Asicn , 1 > . 752 . -f The Arabians also spoke of four principal rivers . See Ebn Batuta , ed . Kosegarten , p . 15 . Comp . Achmed Effeudi , in VVahl , 1 . 1 . X See Vo 98 on Virgil ' s Georges , I . 480 , &c , p . 197 . That such a region \» not to be nought for in real geography , unprejudiced antiquarians have long been aware . See , for example , Bellcrinann , Bibl . Geographie , Pt . I . p . 149 , although even our age lias produced some fresh attempts of this kind , which indeed are not » o ridiculous as those of Hud beck and Hasse , but are as far from really hitting the mark .

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    Biblical Geography . 437

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  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1830, page 437, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2586/page/5/