the nutritive characters of their respective homes. Our perfumes are almost wholly derived from districts that are rainless, or nearly so. Egypt abounds in fragrant flowers, and furnishes the world with the attar of roses. Africa is the nursery of bulbous roots, and confers upon the hothouses of civilized Europe their richest treasures, and even its forests in the East are pregnant with perfumes. Arabia and Persia are equally replete with sweet odors-and the latter rejoices in a whole "paradise of roses." The table lands of Peru, as well as the elevated plateaus of Languedoc and Provence, where dew abounds and rains are rare, are famed for the extreme fragrance of their flowers, and furnish the practical perfumer with the elements of his art. It is to the dew-drop, analyzed by light and heat, and furnishing to the plant its hydrogen, that the vegetable is indebted for its aromatic oil; and the same is true, whether that vegetable be flower or grass, herb or shrub, or seed. or fruit; where dews abound, nutritious properties are elaborated. The observant alchemist of the olden times, in seeking for the "Elixir of Life," made "dew" the basis of his "liquor of immortality." The analytic chemist of our day tells us that man and beast, bird and plant, are each composed of three parts of water, and one part dust and ashes; so too the globe itself consists of three fourths ocean and one fourth dry land-indicating the source and proportions of those constituents. We certainly are well diluted in this post-diluvian world, and well entitled to the instability of water.

The Adamland, as will hereafter be seen, comprised one-third part of the earth's surface, and was no

where subjected to the inequalities of climate we experience. No excessive rains occurred, to drench and dilute the bodies of its creatures, but daily supplies of genial mists and dews met all their wants as they accrued. Even and uniform currents of air, constantly brought them the gaseous elements of life, without sharp transitions from heat to cold, to check the progress of their growth. Serene and cloudless skies admitted such uninterrupted accessions of heat and light, as were necessary to secure the full development and maturity of both the ani- * mal and vegetable kingdoms.

Thus constituted, with its fauna and flora distributed in their proper latitudes, we may readily conceive, that all attained their full and complete perfection. The tropics abounded in gigantic palms, broad-leaved bananas, the bread-fruit, the orange, the lemon and citron-with climbing vines, festooning the forests, redolent with aromatic fragrance. The great trunks of trees increased continuously and homogeneously in size, without pausing to rest and form rings of annual growth, and even the equisetum, or horse tail, and club mosses, assumed the arborescent form. Outside the tropics the oak, beech, chestnut, the fruit trees and vine, harmoniously met the great conifers, the pines, larches and firs-and all rejoiced in an order of things which secured to each its full measure of vital enjoyment, without aught to mar it, in its pursuit of maturity and excellence.

Such were the conditions of life in the Adamland -and herein we have another striking contrast between that ancient world and this.

CHAPTER V.

NATURAL HISTORY.

Frae the pure air of heaven, the same life we draw—
Come gi'e me your hand, we are brethren a'.

"ALL flesh is grass." When the goose eats grass, she, by a nature conferred upon her by her Maker, converts it into goose-flesh; and the fox that eats her, only feeds upon the grass that first formed the goose. But all flesh is not the same flesh; "there is one kind of flesh of men; another flesh of beasts; another of fishes, and another of birds." So, too, all grass is not the same. In our irregular and diversified world, the vegetable kingdom ever presents itself in varied forms and characters. No two continents possess the same configuration, nor the same altitude above the sea, nor the same physical features under the same latitude, and, in fact, no one continent preserves throughout its bounds uniformity in its characteristics. The grass or plant derives the elements that constitute its body not only from the soil, but from the air and gases that surround it. Soil, light, heat, moisture, air, and the gases, unite themselves in combinations ever varying, and to such extent that no ten miles square of this world's surface preserves throughout a uniformity in the conditions essential to organic life. In one region the pine abounds, in another oaks. The walnut, chestnut, the palm, the orange, each has its habitat, where the conditions of

their respective existences are found. In one district, sugar or tobacco flourishes best, but in the next adjoining, perhaps, it is wheat, or rye, or corn. The nutmeg of Australia, whilst it attains the size and form, yet fails to generate the rich aroma of that of Ceylon. The hemp of India, transferred to Europe, no longer elaborates its intoxicating resin, but becomes solely a fibrous plant. The same grape in France, upon adjoining slopes, varies in the wines produced. The animal kingdom, built up and sustained by the vegetable, should exhibit corresponding differences in its divers members; and they, it would seem, should be really greater than they are found to be. The wonder is, not that the same races, under dissimilar conditions, should differ, for that is reasonable, and should be looked for, but that they should have any resemblance at all. How the vital spark, under variant influences, and from heterogeneous elements, is enabled to gather the little atoms that form its body, and so unite them as to preserve the least similitude to its distant kindred, is truly marvellous. One class of learned naturalists, finding the same races of plants and animals variant in their different regions, have concluded, that as distinct species they have so existed from the "beginning;" and unable or unwilling to account for their world-wide distribution, at once cut the gordian knot, and say, that all organic matter was created in specific centres, and that man and beast, and bird and plant, were made and placed, in the regions of their modern existence. This school of philosophy would have us to adopt their own crude conceptions, as a substitute for the word of God, and as more rational than the

account of the creation furnished by its Author. That they should think so, is extremely natural if they are judged by their writings. From The Types of Mankind, a large octavo, expressly designed to expose and demolish Genesis, we cite as follows:

"Another question of much interest to our present investigation is, Have all the individuals of each species of animals, plants, &c., descended from a single pair? Were it not for the supposed scientific authority of Genesis, to this effect, the idea of community of origin would hardly have occurred to any reflecting mind, because it involves insuperable difficulties and science can perceive no reason why the Creator should have adopted any such plan. Is it reasonable to suppose, that the Almighty would have created one seed of grass, one acorn, one pair of locusts, of bees, of wild pigeons, of herrings, of buffaloes, as the only starting point of these almost ubiquitous species? The instincts and habits of animals differ widely. Some are solitary, except at certain seasons; some go in pairs, others in herds and shoals. The idea of a pair of bees, locusts, herrings, buffaloes, is as contrary to the nature and habits of these creatures, as it is repugnant to the nature of oaks, pines, birches, &c., to grow singly, and to form forests. in their isolation. As regards bees, it is natural to have but one female for a whole hive, to whom many males are devoted, besides a large number of drones. Again there are animals which are impelled by nature to feed on other animals. Was the first pair of lions to abstain from food until the gazelles and other antelopes had multiplied sufficiently to preserve their races from the persecution of these ferocious beasts? So with other carnivorous animals, birds, fishes and reptiles."

This is the view of the scriptural account of creation, entertained by that class of philosophers who