only in proportion to the constant and painful toil bestowed upon it. Another class, though

at first, so long as the primeval innocence and happiness lasted, without either ferocity or fear, were soon to fly before man; or else, by invading his welfare, to awaken his prudence and industry, to secure himself from their inroads. A third kind comprised those winged creatures, so different in form and habits, which enliven the fields and solitary forests with their diversified notes. By his possession of reason and intellect, which govern all things, those beings to whom God has purposely granted only that instinct which is adapted to their preservation, or to promote their utility to their master, are brought under subjection to man: at the command of the Lord, they appear before their new created sovereign. Adam distributes them into classes, and gives names to them according to their natures and species, in the same way as a king takes an account of his subjects, and assigns to each of them his rank and office.

But among all this variety of organized existences, every one of which bears, after its

kind, the stamp of their Creator's perfections, Adam discovers none which, endowed with a soul like his own, could share with him their common thoughts and affections-could aid him with its counsels, partake in his pleasures, comfort him in his distresses. He perceives no one creature gifted with faculties sufficiently excellent to contemplate with an eye of intelligence the glorious spectacle of the universe, and, sublimely aspiring towards the source of so many wonders, like him to send up to heaven the incense of praise and thanksgiving. Surrounded by a throng of his subjects and tributaries, he has the affliction of nowhere meeting with a companion worthy of himself. In the midst of this multitude of living creatures, incapable of understanding and responding to his thoughts, he still finds himself alone. His heart, seeking to disclose its feelings, yearns for a friend, a consort, another self: his bliss is imperfect, since he cannot communicate it; his existence appears to him but half-completed; his solitary dominion he feels to be without glory, as well as without delight and advantage: he is weary

even of his superiority; and that lofty rank, which so nobly distinguishes him from the rest of animated nature, is, in his eyes, no more than an empty and irksome decoration. Adam," we are told in the text, gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field; but for him there was not found an help meet for him."

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II. The greatest work of the Creator, however, My Brethren, will not long remain unfinished and imperfect: the perplexity of our first parent will have an end; the voice of his thanksgivings to his Creator will be agitated no longer by secret uneasiness; his sad and melancholy eye will no longer have to search for THAT OBJECT which is to remove his unquietness, and fill the void in his bosom a being like himself, endowed like him with the gifts of sensibility and reflection, is about to give an interest, an end, and an expectancy, to his existence. The sovereign of nature will be no longer lonely in his empire; its glory will become valuable in his eyes, from the time when he will be able to

share it with the partner of his lot. Without his knowledge, but from his own substance, will the Creator form for him the companion whom he seeks, and whose presence he invokes.-Sleep has shed over him its most powerful influence— he hears not, sees not he lies without motionhis anxiety has passed away;-already death appears to have him in its power. "The Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs."

But, what can be meant by this singular and mysterious operation? Why steep Adam in a state of lethargy and apparent death, in order to take his companion from the very substance of his body? Could not the clay of the earth be made to live for her, as for the other animated creatures? Nay, could not God, without any other agency than his mere will, have presented her instantaneously to the view of her delighted husband? Had not nothingness confessed his fiat? and was the word of his mouth, which had achieved so many wonders, powerless to bring forth the mother of human kind? The ways of the Creator are, no doubt, inscrutable who can

fathom their depth, or calculate their diversity? Animated by his word, the basest dust can produce the most noble and most perfect creature; when it pleases Him, non-existence becomes the source of life; and that which was not, called forth by his voice, takes its place among existences. But it is for the very reason, My Brethren, that all means whatsoever are at the disposal of the Almighty, that we are bound to adore Him in his proceedings, however strange they may appear to us: when, therefore, we contemplate Him taking the first woman from the side of her future consort, ought we not to seek, with humility, under this venerable emblem, the intention of the creating God, and the salutary lessons which he designed thereby to convey?

The first lesson included in the mystery of the creation of woman, is, HER DIGNITY AND NOBLENESS. Partaking the nature of man, who himself was made in the image of his Author, woman, like him, will possess a soul intelligent and free; like him, she will be able to relish with delight the pure pleasures of virtue, to love the