which are uneasie to the Soul of Man, besides that they naturally engender good Thoughts, and dispose us to laudable Contemplations.  Many of the old Philosophers passed away the greatest Parts of their Lives among their Gardens. Epicurus himself could not think sensual Pleasure attainable in any other Scene.  Every Reader who is acquainted with Homer, Virgil and Horace, the greatest Genius’s of all Antiquity, knows very well with how much Rapture they have spoken on this Subject; and that Virgil in particular has written a whole Book on the Art of Planting.

This Art seems to have been more especially adapted to the Nature of Man in his Primaeval State, when he had Life enough to see his Productions flourish in their utmost Beauty, and gradually decay with him.  One who lived before the Flood might have seen a Wood of the tallest Oakes in the Accorn.  But I only mention this Particular, in order to introduce in my next Paper, a History which I have found among the Accounts of China, and which may be looked upon as an Antediluvian Novel.

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No. 584.  Monday, August 23, 1714.  Addison.

  ’Hec gelidi fontes, hic mollia prata, Lycori,
  Hic Nemus, hic toto tecum consumerer aevo.’

  Virg.

Hilpa was one of the 150 Daughters of Zilpah, of the Race of Cohu, by whom some of the Learned think is meant Cain.  She was exceedingly beautiful, and when she was but a Girl of threescore and ten Years of Age, received the Addresses of several who made Love to her.  Among these were two Brothers, Harpath and Shalum; Harpath, being the First-born, was Master of that fruitful Region which lies at the Foot of Mount Tirzah, in the Southern Parts of China. Shalum (which is to say the Planter in the Chinese Language) possessed all the neighbouring Hills, and that great Range of Mountains which goes under the Name of Tirzah. Harpath was of a haughty contemptuous Spirit; Shalum was of a gentle Disposition, beloved both by God and Man.

It is said that, among the Antediluvian Women, the Daughters of Cohu had their Minds wholly set upon Riches; for which Reason the beautiful Hilpa preferr’d Harpath to Shalum, because of his numerous Flocks and Herds, that covered all the low Country which runs along the Foot of Mount Tirzah, and is watered by several Fountains and Streams breaking out of the Sides of that Mountain.

Harpath made so quick a Dispatch of his Courtship, that he married Hilpa in the hundredth Year of her Age; and being of an insolent Temper, laughed to Scorn his Brother Shalum for having pretended to the beautiful Hilpa, when he was Master of nothing but a long Chain of Rocks and Mountains.  This so much provoked Shalum, that he is said to have cursed his Brother in the Bitterness of his Heart, and to have prayed that one of his Mountains might fall upon his Head if ever he came within the Shadow of it.