of kine. and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan with the fat of the kidneys of wheat; and drinks the pure blood of the grape." God said to Adam, cursed is the ground, for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee; and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." The full import of such a curse, seems to be nothing less than such a derangement of the course of nature, such a barrenness and perverseness of the soil, as should impose the necessity of continual wearisome toil, so that man should be compelled to snatch a hasty morsel in the midst of his labour, and literally eat his bread in the sweat of his brow.* But now, among us, if we abate all the labour which is rendered necessary by depravity, we shall find that what remains is but like dressing and keeping a garden of the Lord. Subtract from the whole amount of labour in the community, all which is employed for the unreasonable gratification of the appetites, all which becomes necessary by the unruly passions, all which goes to gratify the love of display, all which passes away from him who earns it, into the hands of the fraudulent and the oppressor, all which is taken to support war and government and to pamper national pride, and all else, which is called for, not by the constitution of man, but by his depravity, and then see how light would be the burden of providing, from a bountiful earth, for all the real wants of our nature. Let the constitution of the earth remain just as it is, and remove human wickedness, and there would remain no more than labour enough to employ our powers, and make us happy; no more urgent necessity than

*That such would be the effect of a

curse upon the ground, see Lev. xxvi. 19, 20: Deut. xxx. 24: Job xxxi. 40: Is. xxxii. 13: Jer. xii. 13.

VOL. VII.-No. 1.

just to supply us with suitable motives to activity.

The spirit of complaining and indolence will yet urge that the earth is not now as it was before the fall. It still abounds with thorns and thistles, and requires great labour and toil to make it bring forth its increase. Our ideas of paradise are drawn from the representations of the great poet. We regard it as a kind of Arcadian vale; where life is a mere course of uninterrupted enjoyment; where there is no care nor labour necessary to subsistence and comfort, but men can sit down to eat and drink, and rise up to play; where the dressing and keeping of the garden was a mere amusement to the happy inhabitants, and not the daily business of their lives. Such notions are mere dreams of the imagination. Man is a being possessed of active powers, which require exercise. And the necessity for regular employment in order to enjoy happiness, springs from his constitution, as an active being, and not from depravity. We are accustomed to speak of the necessity for labour as a blessing, merely as it keeps us from evil. But that is not half the truth.

"A little sleep,

a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep," could not afford happiness, even if we were not depraved. Such a state is as little adapted to our nature, as are the wings, with which painters sport their fancies, to the organization of our bodies. However pretty we may think the picture in either case, we should find, if it were realized, that our muscles were not designed for such exercise, nor our minds adapted to such delights. We know nothing of the state of things in Paradise. We have no sort of evidence that the ground brought forth its fruits spontaneously, or that thorns and thistles and the other bindrances to agriculture were created after the fall, on purpose to plague the earth. Action itself is suitable to our na

ture. Our aversion to labour springs from depravity. We do know, that Eden was adapted to the constitution of man to insure his happiness if he had continued obedient. If I mistake not, it can be shown that the earth is now so adapted. Regarding man, merely as a being formed for happiness, and looking only at the present life, and it appears highly probable that the existing system of nature, is the best possible system for human happiness. If it is so, then there is a presumption, at least, that the curse of barrenness denounced upon the earth has been fulfilled and removed. We may then conclude, that the earth was substantially the same before the fall, as it now is; and that the dressing and keeping of the garden was the business of its cultivators.

There are two classes of circumstances, which are usually brought forward, as proofs, either of displeasure, or of a want of benevolence, on the part of the Creator; certain permanent conditions of the earth, and certain changes which take place upon it.

The extremes of heat and cold, in the torrid and frozen zones, the barrenness of certain places, and the calamities of savage life, are supposed to be fruits of the primeval curse. But if we look carefully into the condition of the Arab, the Greenlander, and the savage, we shall find that their cup is not filled with such unmingled evil as we are apt to imagine: and that all the evil which renders their situation really worse than ours, is to be attributed to some other causes than the curse upon the earth. There are, indeed, many circumstances, which would appear to us to be greater evils than fall to our lot. But when we consider the ease with which man accommodates himself to different conditions, and the power of habit, in rendering even opposites agreeable to different individuals, we shall not be willing to set up our own feelings and habits, formed under different circum

stances, as a standard by which to judge of the adaptation of other conditions to promote human happiness. If the country of the Arab or the Greenlander, does not yield him more good than evil, why does he not abandon it? If it does not yield much more, how is it that he becomes so much attached to it? Is it the divine curse, or any of its consequences, that binds them to their desolate regions?

As to the distresses of savage life, it ought to be observed, that they do not flow from the curse upon the ground, but from human indolence and depravity. The constitution of the earth may remain the same, and yet the amount of human happiness be greatly varied. Our finest gardens, if neglected would soon be overrun with briers and thorns. Our cities and villages, transferred to the original savage owners of the soil, would again become a dark and tangled forest. And so, on the other hand, only change the inhabitants, and " the desert buds and blossoms, like the rose.' "Instead of the thorn would come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier would come up the myrtle tree. They should go out with joy, and be led forth with peace, the mountains and hills would break forth before them into singing." There is no curse upon the earth, besides the depravity of its inhabitants, which has prevented all this from being realized, as fast as the human race peopled their various territories. Who can calculate the amount of happiness which the light of religion and science, even in their present state of advancement, might pour into the smoky caves of Greenland? The rocks, already so dear to their possessors, may yet become the abodes of enlarged minds, the seats of refined enjoyment. Then again, it is impossible to calculate what may yet be done further in the progress of ages, towards overcoming the natural evils of the world. We live in an age when improvement seems to

advance with accelerating velocity. Earth, air, fire and water, are almost subdued, and brought under the dominion of man. New relations in the kingdom of nature, are continually discovered, and are all successively rendered tributary to human happiness. The plain reason why these things have not been discovered before, is that the master spirits, who now bring forward these improvements, have heretofore been too much engrossed in the tented field, in the intrigues of courts, or in pulling down or building up tyranny, superstition and priestcraft. But all this is chargeable to depravity. We may well believe, that an unknown number of the laws of nature will yet be discovered, and applied to the use of man, instead of perplexing his mind, and defeating his purposes, as they now do.

As to the barrenness which prevails in certain parts of the earth, it will be time enough to examine it, when we find the globe so populous, as to oblige men to inhabit them. We do not see the effects of the curse in the different climates, soils and other permanent conditions of the earth.

But it may be supposed that its changes exhibit the wrath of Jehovah; that we trace the penal consequences of the fall, in winter, in the earthquake, the volcano, the lightning, the whirlwind, and the pestilence. Let us see. But these calamitous vicissitudes are all, as far as we know, the necessary results of that system of divine operations called the "general laws of nature." It is obvious that some such system is essential to human happiness. Without general laws, on which we could found our calculations respecting future events, and the consequences of particular measures, we could neither contrive nor act. The whole world would be condemned to ignorance, suspense, and inaction. All those particular events, therefore, which unavoidably follow

from the general system, are to be charged upon that, or upon the nature of things. It is the system alone, in its general tendency and main design, which is to be regarded as an indication of the feelings of its Author. No particular events are to be regarded as evidence of the anger of the Almighty, if they result from the general laws of nature; provided it can be made to appear, that the general system of nature, taken as a whole, is in its design and tendency, best adapted to promote human happiness. Now I think it evident, that, as far as our philosophy understands the nature. and tendency of the system, its general character is benevolent. we know of the causes of the particular events under consideration, leads us to suppose that their chief, use and proper effect, that which was uppermost in the mind of the Contriver, was benevolent. It is not unphilosophical, therefore, to conclude that those things, with which we are less acquainted, possess the same general tendency, and were created, and put in operation, for a benevolent end. Thus the pinching cold of winter, is, as far as we can see, the unavoidable result of the delightful and necessary vicissitude in the seasons. No one supposes that the ecliptic was turned aside on purpose to afflict our bodies with the rigours of winter. The object was unquestionably a more important one, and was benevolent. We have no reason to suppose it possible, in the nature of things, to have the advantages of the seasons, without this comparatively trifling inconvenience. we should think a man was trifling, or blaspheming, who should maintain that the electric fluid was created, and kept in operation, as a universal agent; and yet the main design of it was to dart an occasional stroke upon earth, to destroy a house or a tree, a man or an animal, whichever happened to be in its path. The whirlwind equally appears to be an

So

unavoidable result of those currents in the atmosphere, without which the earth would cease to be inhabitable. Those commotions, and eruptions of the earth itself, which astonish the nations, and prostrate the pride and the hopes of man, seem like the operation of safety valves, to let off the superfluous power of the immense fires within. These occurrences are merely incidental, probably necessary incidents. But the system is to be judged by its main design. It is not consistent with the usual simplicity and economy of the divine operations, to maintain such a combination of powerful agents, merely for the purpose of occasionally shaking the earth. We cannot believe it. It cannot be doubted that disease and death are fruits of the original curse; but not of the curse upon the ground. So far as they depend on the constitution of the earth, it is evident that they spring from the things that are most essential to human comfort, the heat of the sun, the moisture in the atmosphere, and the fertility of the soil. But no body ever regarded these blessings as fruits of the curse. The fertility of the earth, supposed by geologists to have been produced by the flood, was likewise an indirect means of human mortality, by affording provocatives and opportunities to excess. deed the greater part of the causes of disease, and much of the virulence of the rest, are to be traced to the indolence, the ignorance, and the intemperance of man, and are therefore not all to be attributed to the curse upon the earth. The success of old Lewis Cornaro, in restoring a broken constitution by a course of rigid abstinence, may perhaps suggest a sufficient cause for antediluvian longevity, in the barrenness of the earth; as well as for the prevalence of disease, and the rapid shortening of the term of life, so soon after the reign of fertility and plenty was restored by the food.

In

Shall we then conclude that the historian was mistaken, and that God never denounced a curse upon the earth? By no means. We may suppose that this curse was fulfilled and terminated by the flood; and that we live in a renovated world, restored to its pristine excellence and beauty.

Bishop Sherlock, in the fourth of his "Discourses on the use and intent of Prophecy," has argued the same thing from Scripture. He supposes that the declaration of Lamech, Gen. v. 29. was an inspired prediction of the termination of that part of the curse, and that the covenant and blessing in the eighth chapter, was the fulfilment of that prophecy.

But however that may be, it is certainly a very fair interpretation of this speech of Lamech's, to say that it contains a promise or prediction, that through his son Noah, the curse pronounced upon the earth after the fall should be removed. Let us now see whether we can show, from scripture, that this prophecy, thus interpreted, has been verified by the event.

It

In Gen. vi. 13. God threatens to destroy all flesh with the earth," but says to Noah, v. 18. "But with thee will I establish my covenant." To establish a covenant means to confirm to a particular individual, or class of individuals, a covenant already subsisting. See Gen. ix. 9. xvii. 7, 19, 21. Deut. viii. 18. This already subsisting covenant is the same which was recognized in the promise revealed to Lamech. was a branch or part of that covenant of deliverance from the penal consequences of the fall, which was implied in the promise that the seed of the woman should conquer the destroyer. The exact import of this covenant revealed to Lamech, and confirmed to Noah, appears from the transactions which took place immediately after the flood. In Gen. viii. 21. God declares " I will not again curse the ground any

t