_North Side of Churchyards_ (Vol. ii., pp. 253. 346.).--The subjoined
extract from Bishop Wilkins's _Discourse concerning a New Planet, tending
to prove that it is probable our Earth is one of the Planets_, 8vo., 1640,
pp. 64-66., will serve to illustrate the passage from Milton, of the north
being "the devoted region of Satan and his hosts:"
"It was the opinion of the Jewish rabbies, that man was created with
his face to the east; therefore the Hebrew word signifies _ante_, or
the east; _post_, or the west; _dextra_, or the south; _sinistra_, or
the north. You may see all of them put together in that place of Job
xxiii. 8, 9.: 'Behold I go forward, and he is not there; and backward,
but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I
cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot
see him.' Which expressions are, by some interpreters, referred unto
the four coasts of heaven, according to the common use of those
original words. From hence it is that many of the ancients have
concluded hell to be in the north, which is signified by the left hand;
unto which side, our Saviour tells us, that the goats shall be divided.
Which opinion likewise seems to be favoured by that place in Job xxvi.
6, 7., where it is said, "Hell is naked before God, and destruction
hath no covering.' And presently it is added, 'He stretcheth out the
north over the empty place.' Upon these grounds, St. Jerome interprets
that speech of the Preacher, Eccles. xi. 3.: 'If the tree fall toward
the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth,
there shall it be,' concerning those who shall go either to heaven or
hell. And in this sense also do some expound that of Zechariah (xiv.
4.), where it is said that 'the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the
midst: half of it shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward
the south.' By which it is intimated, that amongst those Gentiles, who
shall take upon them the profession of Christ, there are two sorts:
some that go to the north, that is, to hell; and others to the south,
that is, to heaven. And therefore it is, say they, that God so often
threatens evil out of the north: and upon this ground it is, saith
Besoldus, that there is no religion that worships that way. We read of
the Mahometans, that they adore towards the south; the Jews towards the
west; Christians towards the east; but none to the _north_."