That tract of earth is not
Over mid earth
Fellow to many
Peopled lands;
But it is withdrawn
Through the Creator’s might
From wicked doers.
Beauteous is all the plain,
With delights blessed,
With the sweetest
Of earth’s odours.”
And then it rambles on in description of its delights, which may be imagined without further quotation.
The Hereford map of the thirteenth century represents the terrestrial Paradise as a circular island near India, cut off from the continent not only by the sea, but also by a battlemented wall, with a gateway to the west.
Rupert of Duytz regards it as having been situated in Armenia. Radulphus Highden, in the thirteenth century, relying on the authority of S. Basil and S. Isidore of Seville, places Eden in an inaccessible region of Oriental Asia; and this was also the opinion of Philostorgus. Hugo de St. Victor, in his book “De Situ Terrarum,” expresses himself thus:—“Paradise is a spot in the Orient productive of all kind of woods and
