given. Would the man who had never seen a parrot, be entitled to assume the impossibility of a bird's possessing the articulation of the human voice?

Nothing is more easily conceivable than the existence of a creature possessing the organs of articulation in at least as high a degree as the parrot, with intelligence in at least as high a degree as the dog or the elephant. It is equally conceivable that such a creature, probably beautiful, and submissive, as all animals then were1, might be an object of familiarity and interest with our first parents, as it would undoubtedly be with ourselves; and that Eve might have found it sporting at the foot of the tree of knowledge, without experiencing any of that alarm which puts the mind on its guard.

To get rid of the presumed difficulty of temptation by so simple an instrument, writers of considerable name have exercised their invention with laborious and useless variety. It has been thus successively conceived' :-That Satan came as an angel,—as a man,-as a fiery serpent,--as an ape, &c. &c. His proceeding is equally controverted. Some think that the serpent spoke by a voice suddenly given by Satan; others, that

2 Tenison, C. 14. Heidigger Hist. Patriar. Ex. 4. Odè Comm. de Angelis. C. 3. Markius, Hist. Parad. &c.

he did not speak, and that the whole description of the dialogue refers merely to the fluctuations of the mind of Eve; others, that the serpent both spoke and acted,-climbing the tree, tasting the fruit, and giving its marvellous effect upon himself as a proof of its virtues. Our refuge from those learned inconsistencies, must be in the simplicity of the original record. If the Tempter had come as an angel, his presence might have been more overpowering; but his very splendour, combined with his formal contradiction of Divine authority, might have awakened alarm. If as a man, the knowledge that Adam alone existed under that form must have been a source of suspicion. The sudden and the splendid were equally startling. Further conceptions are pressed with similar difficulties. The literal narrative alone offers to us an object clear of all suspicion,-an innocent and familiar animal, as incapable, in its own nature, of conceiving a design against man, as the dog that fawned at his feet, or the cattle that sported round him in the field. Whatever a creature of this kind, too, could communicate by its little faculties, would be looked on as less the result of intention than instinct, a spontaneous truth of nature. Even now, we are sometimes directed by the instincts of animals to the use or avoidance of peculiar products of the earth. But, who ever conceives a design of either good or evil in the guide? The temptation was only an example of

this guidance, on a higher scale, suited to the superior, known intelligence of the animal.

The suggestion of the evil spirit coming in this totally unsuspicious shape, to Eve; and combining with the love, the vanity, and the pride, which might mingle in the hope of raising Adam and herself to the rank of celestial beings, might have acted strongly upon an unfortified mind. The fruit itself offered no warning repulsion to the eye or taste'. "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eye, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit, and did eat." Naturally sharing

1 The three doubtless joined their influence in the temptation. The indulgence of the eye, the indulgence of the taste, and the indulgence of vain glory, constitute the essence of all temptation to this hour. The text which enumerates the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, (1 John ii. 16.) as the sources of human guilt, has been echoed alike by heathen philosophy and human experience. And this adds only to the proof, that the narrative of the original crime is consistent in all its features. Appetite, show, and the love of power, are still the great sources of crime; but the last still holds the supremacy, in its influence and its evil: as both an exciter of the more vigorous, and, consequently, of the more dangerous minds; and as exercising an illusion more allied to strength of character, more undecayed by years, and more dazzling to the man and to the multitude. Sensuality and vanity, brief in their existence, and feeble in their means, are toys, compared with the iron shackle which the love of power and name fixes on the mind, the age to which it endures, and the remorseless mischiefs which it inflicts upon mankind.

the delight of the discovery with Adam, "she gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat." Why the graver understanding of man thus rapidly yielded, is left to our conjecture; but the power of beauty, of persuasion, of the pride of heart in defying all hazards for the object of the affections, and even of fear and anguish in the prospect of its loss, are influences which have made themselves felt in every age of human nature.

If such influences still retain their power, under all the chillness and worldliness wrought into the heart by the struggles of life; what might not be the strength of passion and sorrow in the instance of the first man, on the point of being separated for ever from a creature formed in a perfection of beauty, of which earth has probably never seen the equal; and allied to him as woman was never since allied to man; a part of his nature, an actual portion of himself, corporeal and mental; divinely affianced to him by a bond implying a complete communion in every sorrow, as well as joy, of his existence?

The narrative is also perfectly consistent with the distinction of crime arising from the distinction of motive. Both criminals are alike exiled, and alike sentenced to the struggle with a sterile world; but on Eve, as the more presumptuous offender, is inflicted the heavy punishment of pain in her child-bearing-an exclusive agony; as

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if the production of that offspring whose glory may have been among her strongest inducements to dare "to be as gods," should be a memorial of her guilt for ever. Her rashness, too, in relying on her own judgment, and thus assuming independence of her husband, seems to have been peculiarly the object of punishment, in the declaration that "he should rule over her."

St. Paul marks distinctly, as a ground of the acknowledged dependence of woman, that "Adam was not the first deceived, but Eve'."

'1 Tim. ii. 14.