Which can defend her from impending harm.”
Accordingly, God proceeded in his work: not as before, when he made man, and formed his body of the dust of the earth; but he took of the substance of man, and of that formed an associate for him. The process is mentioned by Moses, “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman.” The word תרדמה translated a deep sleep, signifies such a sleep as renders a man insensible of any thing done to him; which was not natural but an extraordinary sleep; not occasioned by any act of violence done to nature, but the immediate effect of the hand of God upon him. Sleep, says a German author, is one of the most remarkable effects of the Divine goodness. It is certainly a proof of the wisdom of our Creator, that we fall asleep imperceptibly. Sleep comes unsummoned: it is the only change in our manner of existence in which reflection bears no part; and is alike independent of the understanding and the will. Our situation, indeed, during the time of sleep, is wonderful. We live, but without knowing or perceiving it! The palpitations of the heart, the circulation of the blood, the process of digestion, and, in a word, all the animal functions continue to be performed without interruption. The mind appears, as it were, to suspend its activity, for a time: by degrees, it looses all sensation, every distinct idea. The senses are deadened, and stop their wonted operations. The muscles, by degrees, are moved more slowly, till all voluntary motion ceases. This change begins in the forehead: then the muscles of the eye-lids, and of the neck, arms, and feet, are so much deprived of their activity, that the man seems to be metamorphosed into a plant. The situation of the brain becomes such, that it cannot transmit to the soul the same ideas as when we are awake. The soul perceives no object, though the nerve of vision is not altered; and it would see nothing, were the eyes to be even open. The ears are not shut, and yet they hear nothing. In a word, we find an unceasing source of admiration, in the wonderful preparations, and the tender care, which the Divine Being has employed, to procure us the blessings of sleep. The following epigram, translated from the Latin by Dr. Wolcott, is beautiful:——
“Come, gentle sleep, attend thy votary’s prayer,
And, though death’s image, to my couch repair!
How sweet, thus lifeless, yet with life to lie,
Thus without dying, oh how sweet to die!“
The word צלע tsela, and in the Septuagint πλευρα, rendered a rib, most probably means bone, and flesh, not a naked bone, but one with flesh adhering to it. “And the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman,” or, according to the Hebrew, builded it up to be a woman; signifying, that the human species was perfect when the woman was created, which before was like an imperfect building. This implies, an old author intimates, that as children are derived from their parents to build up the family, so the woman was derived from Adam to build up his great family, mankind, of his own nature and substance; and that his posterity might spring wholly from him, both in respect of himself, and of his wife, their common mother, who was taken out of him. What amazing wisdom is herein displayed; not only in producing a creature like man, but out of a part of man himself! God could have animated and organized the dust of the earth, and of it formed the woman; but had he done so, she would have appeared in the eyes of man as a distinct being, to whom he had no natural relation.[205]
“Her form completed, lo! she rises fair,
Possess’d of beauties far beyond compare!
This last production of the Artist’s skill,