Chapter VII: Paradise

Varieties of the tradition: (1) as the seat of the gods; (2) as the
home of the first parents; (3) as the abode of the blessed—All
associated with the conception of a mystical tree, in itself an
idealisation of the spirit-inhabited tree worshipped on earth—The
paradise of the gods in Indian tradition; its five miraculous
trees—The paradise of Genesis and of the Persian sacred books—The
tree of paradise compared with sacred cedar of Chaldaea—paradise
as the abode of the blessed, a post-exilic tradition amongst the
Jews—The paradise of the Talmud; and of the Koran—The confusion in
the ancient traditions of paradise partly due to a limited
conception of space and to a belief in the propinquity of
heaven—Greek conceptions of paradise—Milton’s description
influenced by ancient traditions of an elevated paradise.

The earthly paradise—Persistence of the tradition; Sir John
Maundeville’s version—Icelandic tradition—The lost Atlantis of
Plato a variant of the paradise legend—St. Brandan and the Isle of
Avalon—Christopher Columbus—Japanese tradition of an island of
eternal youth, with its marvellous tree—Developments of the idea
of the tree of paradise—Its representation in art 128