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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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knowledge and freedom , that is , into un
necessarily occurred in advancing- to this distant goal ? As soc ^ n as his reason had tried its first powers , nature expelled him from her protecting arms , or , to speak more correctly , he himself , urged by an unknown imputae , and unconscious of the decisive action
of that moment , burst of his own accord from the leading-string , and with his yet weak reason , only guided from afar by instinct , threw himself into the wild game of life , and opened for himself the dangerous road to moral freedom . If , therefore , we change the voice of God in Eden forbidding him
the tree of knowledge into the voice of instinct drawing him back from it , his supposed disobedience to that Divine command will be nothing more than—a defection from his instincttherefore the first manifestation of his self-agency , the first enterprise of liis reason * the first commencement of his
moral existence . This defection from instinct in man which indeed first introduced evil into the creation , but only thereby to make moral good practicable , is , without contradiction , the happiest and grandest occurrence in the history of man ; from this moment , his freedom is dated ; here is the first remote foundation laid of his
morality . The preacher is quite right to speak of this occurrence as a fall of the first man , and in so doing , to deduce useful moral lessorrs ; but the philosopher is not less right in congratulating mankind at large on this important step towards perfection . The former is right in styling it a full—since man then became instead
° f a guiltless , a guilty creature ; instead of a perfect pupil of nature , an imperfect moral being ; instead of a happy instrument , a wretched artificer .
The philosopher is right to call it a giaut step of humanity , for by it man beca me , from the slave of natural impulse , a free agent ; from an automaton , a being of moral discretion ; «"«< J with this step first trod on the ladd er that after the course of many ages was to lead him to self-governm ^ nt . Now the way becomes longer
which he must take to eftjoymeftt . At first he needed only stretch fofth his hand to let satisfaction follow on desire , but now reflection , industry , and trouble , must intervene between the two . Peace was at an end between him and the beasts . Want
drove them against his plantations , nay , even set them oti himself , and by his reason he must artificially provide security and dominion over the powers refused him by nature ; weapons must be invented , and his sleep protected from his enemies by strong habitations . But here already nature
compensates with intellectual pleasures for the loss of vegetable enjoyments . The fruit of his own planting surprised him with a savour never before perceived ; sleep stole over him after fatiguing labour and under a roof of his own construction , more sweetly th&ri in the lazy rest of Paradise . In contest with the tiger who attacked him , he exulted in the discovery of his own strength and dexterity , and with every vanquished danger , could thank himself for the grift of his life .
He is already too noble for Paradise , and knows nothing of himself if , under the pressure of want and the burden of care , he wishes himself back in it . Au ever impatient impulse , the awakened feeling of independence , would soon pursue him iti
his indolent bliss , and render disgusting joys not of his own procuring . This feeling would change paradise into a wilderness , and then make of that wilderness again a paradise . But happy for the human race had it found no worse efremy to contend with than the stubbornness of the soil , the
fury of the beast , atid a tempestuous nature ! Want urged him , passions aroused him and armed him soon against his equal . With man he must battle for his existence ; a long , disastrous , still-enduring contest , but one in which alone he can perfect his reason and morality .
II . Domestic Life , The first sons whom the mother of men bore had over their parents a very important advantage ; they were brought up by man . All the advances which the latter were compelled to make for themselves , and therefore much more tediously , turned t 6 the account of their children , and were
guided by the Cine of the Mosaic Recor d * 40 f