"The Gardens of the Hesperides, with their golden apples, were believed
to exist in some island of the ocean, or, as it was sometimes thought,
in the islands off the north or west coast of Africa. They were far
famed in antiquity; for it was there that springs of nectar flowed by
the couch of Zeus, and there that the earth displayed the rarest
blessings of the gods; it was another Eden." (Ibid., p. 156.)

Homer described it in these words:

"Stern winter smiles on that auspicious clime,
The fields are florid with unfading prime,
From the bleak pole no winds inclement blow.
Mould the round hail, or flake the fleecy snow;
But from the breezy deep the blessed inhale
The fragrant murmurs of the western gale."

"It was the sacred Asgard of the Scandinavians, springing from the
centre of a fruitful land, which was watered by four primeval rivers of
milk, severally flowing in the direction of the cardinal points, 'the
abode of happiness, and the height of bliss.' It is the Tien-Chan, 'the
celestial mountain-land, . . . the enchanted gardens' of the Chinese and
Tartars, watered by the four perennial fountains of Tychin, or
Immortality; it is the hill-encompassed Ila of the Singhalese and
Thibetians, 'the everlasting dwelling-place of the wise and just.' It is
the Sineru of the Buddhist, on the summit of which is Tawrutisa, the
habitation of Sekra, the supreme god, from which proceed the four sacred
streams, running in as many contrary directions.

It is the Slavratta, 'the celestial earth,' of the Hindoo, the summit of