In following years, the bearded corn ensued
From earth unask'd, nor was that earth renew'd.
From veins of valleys milk and nectar broke
And honey sweating through the pores of oak."

5. The same poet-after describing the horrid cruelties inflicted upon animals, in order to appropriate their flesh as food-observes :—

"Not so the golden age, who fed on fruit,

Nor durst with bloody meals their mouths pollute.
Then birds in airy space might safely move,

And tim'rous hares on heaths securely rove:

Nor needed fish the guileful hooks to fear,

For all was peaceful; and that peace sincere." *

6. The golden age is described, in heathen mythology, as under the dominion of Saturn; when, according to Dicearchus, (as related by Saint Jerome in his books on Grecian antiquities,) no man ate flesh; but all lived upon fruits and pulse, which were abundantly produced ; and when (as Virgil remarks)—

"No fences parted fields, nor marks, nor bounds
Distinguish'd acres of litigious grounds;

But all was common; and the fruitful earth
Was free to give her unexacted birth. †

7. Pope, in reference to the same period, observes :

* METAMORPHOSES. Book XV. L. 137. Dryden's Translation.
+ Georgics I. L. 193.

"Nor think in Nature's state they blindly trod;
The state of Nature was the reign of God:
Self-love and social at her birth began ;—
Union the bond of all things, and of man.
Pride then was not, nor arts, that pride to aid;
Man walk'd with beast,-joint tenant of the shade.
The same his table, and the same his bed;
No murder cloth'd him and no murder fed.
In the same temple, the resounding wood,
All vocal beings hymn'd their equal God;
The shrine with gore unstain'd, with gold undrest,
Unbrib'd, unbloody, stood the blameless priest:
Heaven's attribute was universal care,

And man's prerogative to rule, but spare.
Ah! how unlike the man of times to come!
Of half that live the butcher and the tomb ;
Who, foe to Nature, hears the general groan,
Murders their species, and betrays his own.
But just disease to luxury succeeds,
And ev'ry death its own avenger breeds;
The fury-passions from that blood began,
And turn'd on man a fiercer savage, man.'

8. Similar to this is the language of Thomson, in reference to the same period. Speaking of herbs, he says:—

"But who their virtues can declare? Who pierce,

With vision pure, into their secret stores

Of health, and life, and joy? The food of man,
While yet he live in innocence, and told

A length of golden years; unflesh'd in blood,
A stranger to the savage arts of life,
Death, rapine, carnage, surfeit, and disease;
The lord, and not the tyrant, of the world." †
ESSAY ON MAN. Epis. III. L. 147.

+ SPRING. L. 233.

9. This primeval state of innocence and bliss, however, did not long continue. Man forsook the way of peace; and, by vainly assuming a knowledge at variance with the law of his God and his nature, he eat of forbidden food, and thus lost the image in which he had been created. He is therefore no longer a fit inhabitant of Paradise; but is driven into less productive climes, where the very earth refuses to yield its increase without toil and labour. "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 to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken, for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return." (Gen. iii. 17-19.)

10. I shall not stop to inquire, whether these expressions refer to the change of climate man would experience, in consequence of his expulsion from Eden; or whether they refer to some remarkable change that took place in the general fertility of the earth. It is certain, from numerous geological data, that great alterations have been gradually taking place in the earth's atmosphere;—particularly by a diminution of temperature, and carbonic acid; which would greatly affect vegetable productions, and render culture and art much more necessary to bring them to perfection. But there is no evidence, as yet, to show that any material changes have taken place since the creation of man. In whatever way the passage of scripture may be interpreted, one thing is evident; namely, that man, after his transgression, could no longer enjoy

that abundance and variety of delicious fruit, with which he was originally favoured; except as the result of great labour, industry, and experience; and even then he would frequently have to derive his subsistence from roots, corn, and other farinaceous and succulent vegetables: in fact, he must eat the herb of the field."

66

11. To this period, it is probable, Ovid alludes, when he describes the silver age, under the dominion of Jupiter :

66

Succeeding times a silver age behold,—
Excelling brass, but more excelled by gold.
Then Summer, Autumn, Winter did appear;
And Spring was but a season of the year;
The sun his annual course obliquely made,
Good days contracted, and enlarg'd the bad.
The air with sultry heats began to glow;

The wings of winds were clogg'd with ice and snow;
And shivering mortals, into houses driven,

Sought shelter from th' inclemency of heaven.
Those houses, then, were caves, or homely sheds ;
With twining hosiers fenced, and moss their beds.
Then ploughs, for seed, the fruitful furrows broke,
And oxen labour'd first beneath the yoke."*

12. Up to this period, man seems to have derived his support from the vegetable world alone; and upon this food his life was prolonged to vast periods of time. According to the generally received chronology of the Scriptures, the average duration of patriarchal life, previously to the Deluge, was about nine hundred years.

* METAMORPHOSES. Book I. L. 146.

Immediately after the flood, when animal food was permitted as an article of diet, the average of life was reduced to four hundred years; and when Jacob lived, it had gradually declined to one hundred and fifty years. This abbreviated period of human existence may not have been the effect solely of animal diet; but it doubtless had a considerable influence.

13. Lucretius, when describing the first ages of mankind, observes :—

"The nerves that join'd their limbs, were firm and strong;
Their life was healthy, and their age was long:
Returning years still saw them in their prime ;—
They wearied ev'n the wings of measuring time:
No colds, nor heats, no strong diseases wait,
And tell sad news of coming hasty fate;
Nature not yet grew weak, nor yet began
To shrink into an inch the larger span.'

14. Sanchoniathon, a Phoenician historian who flourished about four hundred years after Moses, says, that "the first men lived upon the plants shooting out of the ground." Hesiod, the Greek poet, also says, "the uncultivated fields afforded them their fruits, and supplied their bountiful and unenvied repast." So also Lucretius:

"Soft acorns were their first and chiefest food,
And those red apples that adorn the wood."

15. Similar testimony respecting the food and longevity of the ancients, is also afforded by Manetho, who wrote the Egyptian History; Berosus, who collected the Chaldean

* CREECH'S Translation. Book V. L. 981. Ibid. Book V. L. 997.