the Bible readers of 1580 loved to ponder, is still worthy of being listened to: "Yet (over-curious) question not the site Or on a mountain near Latona's shrine, And that fair stream whose silver waves doe kiss Besides the trees and the rivers of Eden, Moses makes special mention of gold, bdellium, and the onyx-stone. These have all been noticed in stating the probability that the region in the neighbourhood of Ararat represents the original dwelling-place of man. They, however, claim special notice : 1. GOLD. The reference here is plainly to a metal which was found in a natural state in the Land of Eden; and the words "the gold of that land (Havilah) is good," seem to imply that it occurred in the pure lump-the nugget-and did not require to be washed from the sand, or crushed with the rock in order to its being used. In theories Fig. 54. BOKLE OF SIX INCHES. Gold nugget. touching the site of Eden this fact has been too little considered. Indeed I am not aware of its having been referred to at all, though it is fatal to the claims put in for many localities. Geologists know that this precious metal is almost entirely found associated with some of the older stratified rocks, and as these constitute the subsoil of but a comparatively small part of the world, gold is not to be looked for over very wide areas. It occurs in lodes or veins, in laminæ or thin scales, among the detritus of the old rocks, and mixed with quartz rock in such a way that, mineralogically, it is to be looked upon as having been laid down at the same time with the quartz. Nugget gold has generally the appearance of having been melted. Gold in recent workings is often described "as resembling drops of melted metal poured into sand, the indentations being visible even upon the smallest particles of the gold when microscopically examined." These indentations may be observed in most specimens. Fig. 55 shows them on a fragment of recent gold, magnified seven hundred times. Fig. 55. We are warranted in concluding that wherever the site of Eden may have been, it was in a region where the gold-bearing old rocks occur. "Seeing," says Sir R. Murchison, "on the one hand, that the oldest rocks, and, on the other, the medial and youngest deposits, never contain gold, and that yet the metal is of recent accumulation en masse, it might seem to follow that there existed in those original deposits, which have since become largely auriferous, the elements out of which gold was subsequently brought together in rich veinstones. It is indeed a fact that there are fine-grained old schistose sediments in which gold is so impalpably disseminated, that it is difficult to imagine how this diffusion could have occurred if the original menstruum had not contained the elements of the ore. In that diffused state the gold may have remained long after the consolidation of the sediment, until, in ages long posterior, it was run together into metallic veinstones by metamorphic action, or segregated into the lumps and filaments in which it now occurs. But however we may account for them, the facts are those which I have for many years exposed-viz., that a certain geological zone only in the crust of the globe has been rendered richly auriferous." References to the preparation of gold for industrial purposes, and to the uses made of it, will be considered as they occur in the sacred narratives. Fragment of Gold. 2. BDELLIUM. Two views have been taken of this. One party has held that it could only be a gum which issues from certain trees common in the east, while another party pleads that the pearl is here referred to. I prefer the latter view, were it for nothing more than its congruity with the words of Scripture which describe the region of Eden. Its vegetable productions had been referred to, its physical features described in connection with the rivers, its fauna comes in for a share of attention; and what so likely as that its most precious minerals should be noticed-its gold, its onyx-stone, and its pearls? This has been acknowledged in the attempts to fix the site of Eden near the Persian Gulf, noted in all historical times for its pearls. Colonel Chesney has, however, shown that the region to which we have referred as the pro VOL. I. N bable site supplies the pearl from its waters, as well as the gold and onyx from its rocks. The supposition that a certain gum is represented by the word bdellium (bědolach) is not admissible. It has been formed on the ground of the resemblance between the Hebrew word and that used by the ancients for a gum, obtained from trees of the natural order Amyridacea, most of which are distinguished by the quantity of balsam, or resinous matter, which they yield, as myrrh, frankincense, balm or balsam of Gilead-the bdellium of the Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians. Each of these will be noticed in its place. It need only be observed here that the bdellium mentioned by Pliny and others is not so scarce and excellent as to make it precious, while that mentioned in Genesis is evidently both. But the word employed here is used in another passage of Scripture, in a way that cannot fail to help us to a conclusion as certain as is possible in the circumstances. The fair inference to be drawn from the use of the word has been overlooked. And the manna was as coriander seed, and the colour thereof as the colour of bdellium" (bědolach). By referring to Exodus xvi. 14, 31, we find the description enlarged-" And when the dew that lay was gone up, behold, upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost upon the ground." "And the house of Israel called the name thereof manna: and it was like coriander seed, white." It is clear from this that the bdellium of Eden was white. The whole passage, indeed, seems to point to the pearl as the standard of comparison. Fig. 56. 3. ONYX STONE.-The Hebrew word (shoham) here rendered onyx, occurs in the following passages of Scripture:-Exod. xxv. 7, "Onyx stones, and stones to be set in the ephod, and in the breastplate;" xxviii. 9, 20, “And thou shalt take two onyx stones and grave on them the names of the children of Israel." "And the fourth was a beryl, and an onyx, and a jasper: they shall be set in gold in their enclosings;' xxxv. 27, “And the rulers brought onyx stones, and stones to be set, for the ephod and for the breastplate," "and they brought onyx stones enclosed in ouches of gold, graven, as signets are graven, with the names of the children of Israel;" Job xxviii. 16, "It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire;" 1 Chron. xxix. 2, " Onyx Onyx-stone. stones, and stones to be set, glistering stones, and of divers colours, and all manner of precious stones, and marble stones in abundance;" Ezek. xxviii. 13, "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold." One kind of stone is referred to in these verses, viz., the shoham, which our translators nave consistently throughout rendered onyx. When we come to identify the other precious stones mentioned in the words now quoted, we shall see that there is no good ground for holding either that the tarshish, rendered "beryl" in Daniel x. 6, Ezekiel i. 16, and in other passages, or that jahalom, rendered "diamond" in Exodus xxxix. 11, Ezekiel xxviii. 13, and elsewhere, should be more correctly rendered " onyx." By such a process we would exclude the mention of the true onyx from Scripture, though its use in the East from time immemorial as a precious stone can be fully shown. It seems, then, that the onyx of Genesis ii. is rightly held to be the stone still referred to under the same name. It is one of many varieties of precious stones which are grouped by mineralogists under the wellknown term quartz-a mineral whose constituent ingredient is silex or flint. Quartz is very widely distributed throughout nature, and enters largely into the composition of some of the oldest rocks, as granite, for example. Under the name of rock crystal it is met with in forms and hues of great beauty. In its massive state it occurs in veins, associated with the old rocks. The crystals pass from colourless through the various hues of white, yellow, violet, rose, brown, and black. Thus we have the precious stones known as milky quartz, citrine, cairngorm, amethyst, rose quartz, brown topaz, &c. Non-transparent varieties of the finer kinds of quartz are known as jaspers; and semi-transparent varieties are named chalcedonies, under which the onyx is ranked. Chalcedonies are found of different colours. As agates they pass into such varieties as spotted agate, ribbon agate, fortification agate, cloudy agate, moss agate, &c. When the colours brown and white, or black and white occur in flat bands above each other, the chalcedony is named onyx, and is chiefly of two kinds, both of which are found in Bible lands, namely, Arabian onyx or black ribbon agate, and light brown and black onyx. Neither of these is abundant; but man's art has come in to gratify the demand for them, and both kinds of onyx are imitated and manufactured for purposes of trade. The more easily procurable rock crystal is artificially coloured, and passed off as native onyx.-(Bischof.) The onyx of Genesis appears thus to have been a chalcedony, and probably the name shoham was used to express more than one kind, according to the use to be made of it. Fig. 57. Arabian Onyx. "And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam, to see what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof;" "And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field: but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him "-ver. 19, 20. It is not of much moment to determine, even if it were possible, whether man's power would be equal to the task of naming every creature. He named all the types of life which God brought to him. This is indeed all that concerns us. There is no necessity for making out that Adam "named only a very limited group of animals," or for holding that the carnivorous beasts could have no place among those named, because paradise could not be a suitable place for them; and it is even less worthy of time and attention to consider this act in the light of the geological record, with the view of making out that only a small number of animals were created to be grouped around man, all the others having existed long prior to this period in the wilderness around the garden of Eden. The words are plain enough, supplying their own interpretation. The Lord summoned Adam to name the animals brought to him, "and whatsoever the man called every living creature (thus brought) that was the name thereof." The intelligence which was equal to the comprehension of the relation between the first covenant and the tree of knowledge, on the one hand, and man's responsibility, on the other, would not be at fault under the divine guidance, in discerning outward features, or even peculiarities of structure connected with food, of a kind sufficient as bases for discriminative characterization. The Creator had put them under his dominion; and the first evidence which we here have of the consciousness of this on the part of man, is when he proceeds to name the creatures given to him. This is interesting for another reason also. It is on this occasion that we first meet with man as "the speech-gifted" creature. The first recorded use made of the noble and divine gift was to name the lower animals. They were to be mixed up with all his most important experiences, and even after his fall he would be reminded of the original law of subjection to his will, as he met with the names which he had bestowed upon them, before the tempter beguiled him from that position pure peace which was his in perfection as the creature of God. Much has been written, but to very little purpose, on the constitution of the lower animals and their attitude to man previous to the fall. It is habitually forgotten that the very words of the sacred volume give a distinct utterance on both of these points. The beasts were made after of |