could exist, without a modification in the quality of the substances from which they spring. As to the animal kingdom, it is expressly said that in it, or at least in one individual of it, a change in character was produced: "And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel." Here we have the first intimation of anything coming into existence, of a character hostile and hurtful to man—"thou shalt bruise his heel." The serpent indeed existed before, but it was harmless— for though called "subtle," there is no proof that it was hostile to man; but now both a disposition and a faculty of hurting man were to enter into it. We may thence conclude that poisonous and deadly serpents then first began to exist. And if such animals then first came into existence, we may not unreasonably conclude that other noxious and destructive species in the animal kingdom then, also, or afterwards, began to be. Indeed, we must so conclude, if we keep in mind that all things existent before man's sin,—all things as originally created,—were "good and very good."
This view will be confirmed in our minds, if we call to recollection the prophecy that, at a future happy day,—when innocence and peace shall return once more to take up their abode in the hearts of men,—when an Eden, as it were, shall once more be seen on the earth, and the whole world, indeed, shall be a "watered garden,"—then fierce animals will no more exist; or if
