NINTH DIVISION. Embraces a position, that when man fell from original holiness, he lost his power of governing all wild animals, and became henceforward exposed to their natural fury and dispositions; but in the Millennium shall recover his government again. 4440 At first the morning stars, when shouting from the skies, An absolute government over all the beasts of the field, the fowls of heaven, and the fish of the sea, was given to man as soon as he was created. This dominion, if Adam had not sinned, would have continued to the present time, maintained by the superior majesty which shone out in every word and gesture of the then uncontaminated man. He, it is said, was created but a little lower than the angels; consequently, a glorious majesty sat upon his countenance, which, together with the subduing power of his voice, ruled at his pleasure the whole animal kingdom. If it is said of the angel who appeared to the wife of Manoah, the father of Samson, that his countenance was very terrible, so I conclude was the countenance of Adam, and in no small degree, because he was but little inferior to the very angels of heaven. But though terrible, yet glorious and beautiful to look upon, consequently the most powerful and most ferocious, as well as the weaker animals of ocean, air, or earth, were, at plea sure, awed into submission by this first and holiest o men. That all manner of wild beasts were perfectly mild and docile in themselves before man fell, canne be true, for the very idea of government and dominion which at first was given to man over them, supposes the contrary. God blessed him, and said, Have daminion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Gen. 1, 28. Here, then, is a dominion, a government. to be exercised over the brute creation; and if, afte the fall, in the days of Noah, a dread of man was to be on every beast of the mountains, how much more so then, before he fell! But if perfect docility was the primitive character o every kind of beast, what a stupid position does thi present them in, as subjects of natural dominion, The very idea of government, therefore, seems strongly to allude to the wildness and natural freedom of their natures. But notwithstanding any subjugation to which they may be compelled, there in them a natural disposition to their original state o wildness and ferocity, which is proven if we leave ther again to themselves, after having been domesticated. This principle of wildness and natural timidity is nothing else but a principle of self-preservation, which the Creator at first stamped on all animal nature, which is evident in a less or greater degree among all beasts, fowls, fishes and insects. It is this principle of self-preservation or instinctive (though unconscious*) love of life, which God has breathed into all animals, which gives to them instinctive motives for action, and is that genial fire which impels them to obtain their food, and to flee from real or imaginary danger. Without this, no beast would have force enough to get out of the way when threatened. This principle is marked with deeper or fainter shades, * Once for all in this place, I will remark, that the word coNSCIOUS, Or CONSCIOUSNESS, properly belongs to no species of being on the earth but the rational. It is defined by all lexicographers to signify a knowledge of what passes in one's own mind, an in ternal sense of guilt or innocence. This qualification is the only distinguishing mark between the brute and the man. The latter is thereby empowered to revolve subjects in his own mind in such a manner as to deduce rational conclusions from any premises conceived of, and is the only reason why he is a subject of law imposed by the Creator, and is, consequently, rendered accountable. But the former, not possessing this qualification, are not, therefore, rational, and consequently are not conscious of either guilt or innocence, and therefore are not accountable to the Creator, as man is. Whatever sagacious qualifications any animal may possess, they should be ranked under the idea of instinctive powers, which falls infinitely short of a rational consciousness, and produces all those actions of which animals are capable, and is the power which determines the will of brutes, without the aid of reason or consciousness. aA as seemed good to the Creator, from the fierce tiger of the Bengal woods, downward to the humming bird of a summer's morning, from thence to where animal life is lost in the sensitive plant, or the polypus of the sea. If, at first, the principle of self-defence, manifested ei ther by the sanguine conflict, or by speed of flight, were not implanted by the Creator, it would follow that all animals not carnivorous, would soon have become extinct, by being devoured by such as were of the former sort; and they also would, in their turn, have died for lack of proper food. But the defensive as well as offensive spirit, which prevails through all the ranks of animation, is nothing else but the play of nature, the wisdom of God, so that the weaker may save time to propagate their kinds before they fall a prey to sustain the other branches of animation. That such was the original design, I shall attempt to prove, by referring to the peculiar construction and facilities afforded animals to procure their food. There we see the fierce panther, couched in a thicket, or hid in the thick boughs of the trees, from whence to leap upon his victim-there the eagle pursues, on rapid wings, the pheasant, or pounces, like a bolt from the clouds, upon the timid hare the shark rives the briny waves, and flies, with the speed of an arrow, in pursuit of his destined food. To the lion is given a mouth armed with canine teeth, and feet with horrible claws, to seize and retain his prey; so every creature iş fitted for their several modes of life, from the mammoth, hugest of God's works, to the ephemera of e summer's day. Perhaps, in this place, if I give an account of the mammoth, it will not displease the curious. The anianal is by naturalists named mammoth, or mega-lonyx, the whole race of which appears to be now wholly extinct, except a few skeletons which are yet remaining. The mammoth is undoubtedly a carnivorous animal, as the structure of the teeth proves, and is of an immense size. It is stated by Dr. Clark, that from a considerable part of a skeleton which he had seen and examined, it is computed that the animal to which it belonged must have been nearly twenty-five feet high, and sixty in length. The bones of one toe were entire, and upwards of three feet in length. It is argued by Dr. Clark, that the behemoth, or mammoth, was a cruel and fierce animal, and formed for tyranny and rapacity -equally lord of the floods and the mountains; its habits of motion being with fury and speed. Although naturalists have contended, some, that Job, in the Scriptures, has distinguished, in his description of the Behemoth, the Elephant, and others the Hippopotamus; but the sacred description does not agree with either, because the tail of the elephant is small and slender, and that of the hippopotamus but a foot long. But the tail of the mammoth is said to be like a cedar tree. He moveth his tail like a cedar. Job 40, 17. Its teeth plainly denotes it to have been carnivorous, from the unevenness of their surface, the processes being an inch deep, which marks the creature as living on flesh. And yet it is described as feeding on grass with equal facility, and probably lived both on animal and vegetable food. |