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PARADISE

Volume 8 · 220 words · 1778 Edition

a term principally used for the garden of Eden, in which Adam and Eve were placed immediately upon their creation.

As to this terrestrial paradise, there have been many inquiries about its situation. It has been placed in the third heaven, in the orb of the moon, in the moon itself, in the middle region of the air, above the earth, under the earth, in the place posited by the Caspian sea, and under the arctic pole. The learned Huetius places it upon the river that is produced by the conjunction of the Tigris and Euphrates, now called the river of the Arabs, between this conjunction and the division made by the same river before it falls into the Persian sea. Other geographers have placed it in Armenia, between the sources of the Tigris, the Euphrates, the Araxis, and the Phasis, which they suppose to be the four rivers described by Moses. But concerning the exact place we must necessarily be very uncertain, if indeed it can be thought at all to exist at present, considering the many changes which have taken place on the surface of the earth since the creation.

The celestial paradise is that place of pure and refined delight in which the souls of the blest enjoy everlasting happiness.

Bird of Paradise. See the following article.