ADAM, the first of the human race, was formed by the Almighty on the sixth day of the creation. His body was made of the dust of the earth: after which, God animated or gave it life, and Adam then became a rational creature. His heavenly Parent did not leave his offspring in a destitute state to shift for himself; but planted a garden, in which he caused to grow not only every tree that was proper for producing food, but likewise such as were agreeable to the eye, or merely ornamental. In this garden were assembled all the brute creation; and, by their Maker, caused to pass before Adam, who gave all of them names, which were judged proper by the Deity himself.—In this review Adam found none for a companion to himself. This solitary state was seen by the Deity to be attended with some degree of unhappiness; and therefore he threw Adam into a deep sleep, in which condition he took a rib from his side, and healing up the wound formed a woman of the rib he had taken out. On Adam's awaking, the woman was brought to him; and he immediately knew her to be one of his own species, called her his bone and his flesh, giving her the name of woman because she was taken out of man.
The first pair being thus created, God gave them authority over the inferior creation, commanding them to subdue the earth, also to increase and multiply and fill it. They were informed of the proper food for the beasts and for them; the grass, or green herbs, being appointed for beasts; and fruits, or seeds, for man. Their proper employment also was assigned them; namely, to dress the garden, and to keep it.
Though Adam was thus highly favoured and instructed by his Maker, there was a single tree, which grew in
Adam. in the middle of the garden, of the fruit of which they were not allowed to eat; being told that they should surely die in the day they ate of it. This tree was named the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This prohibition, however, they soon broke through. The woman having entered into conversation with the Serpent, was by him persuaded, that by eating of the tree she should become as wise as God himself: and accordingly, being invited by the beauty of the fruit, and its desirable property of imparting wisdom, she plucked and ate; giving her husband of it at the same time, who did likewise eat.
Before this transgression of the divine command, Adam and his wife had no occasion for clothes, neither had they any sense of shame; but immediately on eating the forbidden fruit, they were ashamed of being naked, and made aprons of fig leaves for themselves. On hearing the voice of God in the garden, they were terrified, and hid themselves: but being questioned by the Deity, they confessed what they had done, and received sentence accordingly; the man being condemned to labour; the woman to subjection to her husband, and to pain in child-bearing. They were now driven out of the garden, and their access to it prevented by a terrible apparition. They had clothes given them by the Deity made of the skins of beasts. In this state Adam had several children; the names of only three of whom we are acquainted with, viz. Cain, Abel, and Seth. He died at the age of 930 years.
These are all the particulars concerning Adam's life, that we have on divine authority: but a vast multitude of others are added by the Jews, Mahometans, and Papists; all of which must be at best conjectural; most of them, indeed, appear downright falsehoods or absurdities. The curiosity of our readers, it is presumed, will be sufficiently gratified by the few which are here subjoined.
According to the Talmudists, when Adam was created, his body was of immense magnitude. When he sinned, his stature was reduced to a hundred ells, according to some; to nine hundred cubits, according to others; who think this was done at the request of the angels, who were afraid of so gigantic a creature. In the island of Ceylon is a mountain, called the Peak or mountain of Adam, from its being, according to the tradition of the country, the residence of our first parents. Here the print of his footsteps, above two palms in length, are still pointed out.
Many reveries have been formed concerning the personal beauty of Adam. That he was a handsome well-shaped man is probable; but some writers, not content with this, affirm, that God, intending to create man, clothed Himself with a perfectly beautiful human body, making this his model in the formation of the body of Adam.
Nor has the imagination been less indulgent concerning the formation of the human species male and female.—It would be endless to recount all the fancies that have been wrote on this subject; but as Madame Bourguignon has made a considerable figure in the religious, or rather superstitious, world, we cannot help inserting some of her opinions concerning the first man, which are peculiarly marvellous. According to the revelations of this lady, Adam before his fall possessed in himself the principles of both sexes, and the virtue
or power of producing his like, without the concurrent assistance of woman. The division into two sexes she imagined*, was the consequence of man's sin; and now, she observes, mankind are become so many monsters in nature, being much less perfect in this respect than plants or trees, which are capable of producing their like alone, and without pain or misery. She even imagined, that being in an ecstasy, she saw the figure of Adam before he fell, with the manner how, by himself, he was capable of procreating other men. "God," says she, "represented to my mind the beauty of the first world, and the manner how he had drawn it from the chaos: every thing was bright, transparent and darted forth life and ineffable glory. The body of Adam was purer and more transparent than crystal, and vastly fleet; through his body were seen vessels and rivulets of light, which penetrated from the inward to the outward parts, through all his pores. In some vessels ran fluids of all kinds and colours, vastly bright, and quite diaphanous. The most ravishing harmony arose from every motion; and nothing resisted, or could annoy him. His stature was taller than the present race of men; his hair was short, curled, and of a colour inclining to black; his upper lip covered with short hair: and instead of the bestial parts which modesty will not allow us to name, he was fashioned as our bodies will be in the life eternal, which I know not whether I dare reveal. In that region his nose was formed after the manner of a face, which diffused the most delicious fragrant and perfumes; whence also men were to issue, all whose principles were inherent in him: there being in his belly a vessel, where little eggs were formed; and a second vessel filled with a fluid which impregnated those eggs: and when man heated himself in the love of God, the desire he had that other creatures should exist beside himself, to praise and love God, caused the fluid above mentioned (by means of the fire of the love of God), to drop on one or more of these eggs, with inexpressible delight; which being thus impregnated, issued, some time after, out of man by this canal †, in the shape of an egg, † i. e. the whence a perfect man was hatched by insensible de-nasal canal gress. Woman was formed by taking out of Adam's side the vessels that contained the eggs; which she still possesses, as is discovered by anatomists."
Many others have believed that Adam at his first creation was both male and female: others, that he had two bodies joined together at the shoulders, and their faces looking opposite ways like those of Janus. Hence, say these, when God created Eve, he had no more to do than to separate the two bodies from one another ‡. Of all others, however, the opinion of Parnaclesus seems the most ridiculous||. Negabat primos partem generationi hominis necessarias; credebant postea accessisse, ut strumam gutturi. ¶
Extravagant things are asserted concerning Adam's knowledge. It is very probable that he was instructed by the Deity how to accomplish the work appointed him, viz. to dress the garden, and keep it from being destroyed by the brute creatures; and it is also probable that he had likewise every piece of knowledge communicated to him that was either necessary or pleasing: but that he was acquainted with geometry, mathematics, rhetoric, poetry, painting, sculpture, &c. is too ridiculous to be credited by any sober person. Some rabbies,
rabbies, indeed, have contented themselves with equaling Adam's knowledge to that of Moses and Solomon; while others, again, have maintained that he excelled the angels themselves. Several Christians seem to be little behind these Jews in the degree of knowledge they ascribe to Adam, nothing being hid from him, according to them, except contingent events relating to futurity. One writer indeed (Pinedo) excepts politics; but a Carthusian friar, having exhausted in favour of Aristotle, every image and comparison he could think of, at last asserted that Aristotle's knowledge was as extensive as that of Adam.—In consequence of this surprising knowledge with which Adam was endowed, he is supposed to have been a considerable author. The Jews pretend that he wrote a book on the creation, and another on the Deity. Some rabbies ascribe the 92d psalm to Adam; and in some manuscripts the Chaldee title of this psalm expressly declares that this is the song of praise which the first man repeated for the Sabbath day.
Various conjectures have been formed concerning the place where man was first created, and where the garden of Eden was situated; but none of these have any solid foundation. The Jews tell us, that Eden was separated from the rest of the world by the ocean; and that Adam, being banished therefrom, walked across the sea, which he found every way fordable, by reason of his enormous stature*. The Arabians imagined paradise to have been in the air; and that our first parents were thrown down from it on their transgression, as Vulcan is said to have been thrown down headlong from heaven by Jupiter.
Strange stories are told concerning Adam's children. That he had none in the state of innocence, is certain from Scripture; but that his marriage with Eve was not consummated till after the fall, cannot be proved from thence. Some imagine, that, for many years after the fall, Adam denied himself the connubial joys by way of penance; others, that he cohabited with another woman, whose name was LILITH. The Mahometans tell us, that our first parents having been thrown headlong from the celestial paradise, Adam fell upon the isle of Serendib, or Ceylon, in the East Indies; and Eve on Iouda, a port of the Red sea, not far from Mecca. After a separation of upwards of 200 years, they met in Ceylon, where they multiplied: according to some Eve had twenty, according to others only eight, deliveries; bringing forth at each time twins, a male and a female, who afterwards married. The rabbins imagine that Eve brought forth Cain and Abel at a birth; that Adam wept for Abel a hundred years in the valley of tears near Hebron, during which time he did not cohabit with his wife; and that this separation would probably have continued longer, had it not been forbid by the angel Gabriel. The inhabitants of Ceylon affirm, that the salt lake on the mountain of Colombo consists wholly of the tears which Eve for one hundred years together shed because of Abel's death.
Some of the Arabians tell us, that Adam was buried near Mecca on Mount Abukobeis; others, that Noah, having laid his body in the ark, caused it to be carried after the deluge to Jerusalem by Melchisedec the son of Shem: of this opinion are the eastern Christians; but the Persians affirm that he was interred
in the isle of Serendib, where his corpse was guarded by lions at the time the giants warred upon one another. Some are of opinion that he was buried at Jerusalem, on the place where Christ suffered, that so his bones might be sprinkled with the Saviour's blood.