flesh of animals is the last thing a man would think of eating, who has been told that his food is to consist of vegetables. It seems clear to us that animal food-even to this day but sparingly used in the East, and in some Eastern countries held in abhorrence-was not intended to be the food of man, at least in his original condition. Instinctively we recognise the fitness that it should not have been so. We know not what were the divine intentions with respect to the state of man in case he had not fallen; but it is reasonable to assume that this rule respecting food would have continued in operation, and that his climate, and other circumstances, would not have been such as to create the need of, or appetite for, the flesh of animals. This appetite is after all, to a great extent, the effect of climatic influences; and it was probably not until mankind had spread into climes far distant from their first seat, that they began to transgress this rule of food; for we agree with those who think that the distinction of clean and unclean beasts, at the time of the flood, implies the previous use of animal food. From the permission to use such food, expressly granted to Noah after the deluge, it may be thought that he and other righteous persons had abstained therefrom in obedience to the paradisaical law; or at least that they had been troubled with doubts on the subject, and were hence favoured with the express permission to use the flesh of beasts. It is even more than possible, that the constitution of the earth underwent such changes at the deluge, as rendered meat, more than before, suitable for the food of man. In any case, it appears to us that the words then uttered contain a distinct reference to the original grant, and an extension of it: 'Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things' (Gen. ix. 3). And if, as the language most clearly implies, the extension was now first made, and was necessary to satisfy the conscience of a righteous man, it is manifest that animal food could only, before the flood, have been eaten by those whose transgressions brought that awful judgment upon the world. From this it seems clear, that whatever we say as to the VOL. I. C period between the fall and the deluge, vegetable food only was allowed to man, or used by him in his first estate. The poets, therefore, are here again right in regarding vegetables alone as The food of man, While yet he lived in innocence, and told Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease; The lord, and not the tyrant, of the world.'-THOMSON. This abstinence from animal food is in fact preserved in the traditions of all nations, as one of the characteristics of their golden age-the age of innocence. Some have thought that the restriction was designed for a temporary purpose, in order that there might be no check to the increase of the newly created races; but if so, it would have been equally necessary after the deluge, when only the few animals that had been saved in the ark remained alive. It is not at all necessary to enter into the old and somewhat entertaining question as to the comparative merits of vegetable and animal diet. As it is certain that but little of the latter is used in warm countries, whereas large quantities are consumed in colder regions; and as we can observe in our own experience, that the inclination for flesh-meat is less active in summer than in winter,—the matter seems to be, in the result, chiefly one of climate-men residing in the colder latitudes requiring a stronger nutriment than vegetables supply, to make up for the greater waste of animal heat. Be this as it may, there cannot be in the practice anything essentially wrong, or it would not have been expressly permitted by God himself after the deluge. The objections as to the cruelty of the practice sound well in poetry, but will not bear the test of reason. Myriads of animals have been called into being, and cared for and well fed by man, have been allowed the full enjoyment of the happiest period of animal life,—that would not have existed at all, or could not have been maintained in existence, had they not been needful to him. What would be the result for the advantage of the domesticated animals were they not thus needful to man? Most of the land now left for pasturage would be brought under culture; and the animals not being needed, and therefore not being worth the cost of rearing, would not be allowed to increase; or they would be destroyed, like young cats, at their birth; or being left to themselves, they would starve, or become the prey of ravenous beasts. Even in the article of death, the animals are not losers. Sickness and decay, softened by many tender circumstances to the human creature, are horrible, involving as they do death by starvation, to animals constrained in a state of nature to seek their own food; and the other alternative, death from beasts of prey, is accompanied by circumstances of dread, horror, and pain, in the pursuit, the struggle, and the torturing laceration, which are unknown under the hands of the butcher, who suddenly and once for all attacks the seat of life. Doubtless there is more real humanity in the system which allows ten thousand animals to enjoy their youth, than in that which would, in proportion, only permit one to live, to exist to old age, and to die of slow decay. Of the fifty millions, or thereabout, of sheep in these islands, how many would have known existence, were mutton not an article of food? Second Week-Third Day. ADAM IN EDEN. GENESIS II. 8. THE sacred narrative informs us that the newly created man was placed in a garden, in the eastern part of a land called Eden. The land of Eden was in a well-watered, fertile, and pleasant country; and the best and choicest part of that land, planted as a paradise or garden, was to be the abode of the first man. Let not the reader be troubled. We intend not to inquire into the site of Eden. It may be doubted whether the changes wrought on the face of the earth at the deluge, have not placed the spot beyond discovery or recognition. But we are sure that it was a most pleasant place—pleasanter, without doubt, than any the world has since beheld. Here, probably, all that was sublime and gentle in the scenery of the whole earth was exhibited in pattern, and all that could delight the uncorrupted tastes of the new man, with all that could excite the earnest inquiries of his mind, were spread out before him. He had labour to employ his attention, without wearying him; and he had time, leisure, for his highest pursuits-those connected with the knowledge, which he eagerly desired to possess, of God, his will, and his works. There was no disharmony in nature to pain his soul. The birds sang sweetly to him as he walked, or wrought, or rested; and the beasts gambolled playfully around their master. He was endowed with a rational and immortal spirit; he was holy, and therefore happy; and he enjoyed sensible intercourse with God, and probably with angels. What a state of blessedness was this! To men embued with the spirit of the fall, to whom the excitements of conflict and conquest are necessary, and who will not be happy unless they can 'ride in the whirlwind, and direct the storm,' the paradise of Eden may seem insipid, and the loss of it no great privation, merely as a condition of life. But to those to whom the strifes of men are hateful; who faint beneath the cares of life; who are cut off from sun and air by the necessities of daily toil; or who groan under the burden of their sins, the repose, the rest, the happiness of Eden, glorified by the presence of God, appears beyond all measure inviting, and well may they cry, 'O Adam, what hast thou done, to lose for thy children so fair a heritage!' Yet even such may be of good cheer; for the second Adam has found for them a fairer home, and a more blessed inheritance. There has been much speculation respecting the condition of Adam in regard to knowledge. All accounts necessarily assign to him the utmost physical perfection of man's nature. But in the view of some he was merely a naked savage, who had all things to acquire by experience. This theory has not been held from any intended disrespect to the father of mankind; but because it was an old opinion, that knowledge, intelligence, and the arts of civilisation, were progressively acquired in the first ages; and it was therefore necessary that the progenitor of the race should be in a state of ignorance, as it could not but be supposed that he would impart such know ledge as he possessed to his descendants. On the other hand, there are those who urge that Adam, instructed of God, must have been possessed of all knowledge of which the mind of man is capable, and have been deeply skilled in all the sciences and arts of civilisation. That both extremes are wrong, we have no doubt. Adam was at his creation not a child; he was a man, in the vigour of physical and mental life. There is no need of placing any limit to his powers of thought, of reasoning, of comparison, of imagination. He was taught of God, and not left to gather, by slow experience, all that he wanted to know. If Adam could talk at all, and we know that he could, language must have been supernaturally imparted to him. He had no means of acquiring it but from God. From the same source he must have derived the knowledge he possessed of the properties of the animate and inanimate objects around him. He had the employment assigned him of keeping and dressing the garden; and this involves the knowledge of many operations, and of many properties of plants, which, although they may be in our day possessed by one man, are nevertheless the result of ages of experience. The commonest gardener who works for us, brings to his labour the progressive knowledge of many generations. If Adam had gone to work without previous instruction, or without being on the instant inspired (as was probably the case) with the knowledge of what was proper to be done in every new circumstance, he would soon have made sad ravages, even in the garden of Eden. To cultivate a garden implies the use of tools. These must either have been supplied to him, or he must have been endowed with the skill, and with the knowledge of materials, necessary to enable him to make them for this purpose. |