The scriptural notices show [see Adam] that the fa- ther of men was something more than " the noble sav- age," or rather the grown-up infant, which some have represented him. He was an instructed man ; and the immediate descendants' of a man so instructed could not be an ignorant or uncultivated people. It is not necessary, indeed, to suppose that they possessed at first more cultivation than they required ; and for a good while they did not stand in need of that which results from or is connected with the settlement of men in organized communities. They probably had this before the Deluge, and at first were possessed of whatever knowledge or civilization their agricultural and pastoral pursuits required. Such were their pur- suits from the first ; for it is remarkable that of the strictly savage or hunting condition of life there is not the slightest trace before the Deluge. After that event, Nimrod, although a hunter (Gen. x, 9), was not a savage, and did not belong to hunting tribes of men. In fact, barbarism is not discoverable before the confusion of tongues, and was, in all likelihood, a degeneracy from a state of cultivation, eventually pro- duced in particular communities by that great social convulsion. At least, that a degree of cultivation was the primitive condition of man, from which sav- age life in particular quarters was a degeneracy, and that he has not, as too generall}* has been supposed, worked himself up from an original savage state to his present position, has been powerfully argued by Dr. Philip Lindsley (Am. Bib. liepos. iv, 277-298; vi, 1- 27), and is strongly corroborated by the conclusions of modern ethnographical research ; from which we learn that, while it is easy for men to degenerate into savages, no example has been found of savages rising into civilization but by an impulse from without ad- ministered by a more civilized people ; and that, even with such impulse, the vis inertice of established habits is with difficulty overcome. The aboriginal traditions of all civilized nations describe them as receiving their civilization from without — generally through the in- strumentality of foreign colonists : and history affords no example of a case parallel to that which must have occurred if the primitive races of men, being original- ly savage, had civilized themselves.
All that was peculiar in the circumstances of the antediluvian period was eminently favorable to civ- ilization. The longevity of the earlier seventeen or twenty centuries of human existence is a theme con- taining many problems. It may be here referred to for the purpose of indicating the advantages which must necessarily have therefrom accrued to the me- chanical arts. In pottery, mining, metallurgy, cloth- making, the applications of heat and mixtures, etc., it is universally known that there is a tact of manipu- lation which no instruction can teach, which the pos- sessor cannot even describe, yet which renders him powerful and unfailing, within his narrow range, to a degree almost incredible; and when he has reached his limit of life he is confident that, had he another sixty or seventy years to draw upon, he could carry his art to a perfection hitherto unknown. Something like this must have been acquired by the antedilu- vians ; and the paucity of objects within their grasp would increase the precision and success within the range. See Longevity.
By reason of their length of life the antediluvians had also more encouragement in protracted undertak- ings, and stronger inducements to the erection of su- perior, more costly, more durable, and more capacious edifices and monuments, public and private, than exist at present. They might reasonably calculate on reap-
ing the benefit of their labor and expenditure. The earth itself was probably more equally fertile, and its climate more uniformly healthful and more auspicious to longevity, and consequently to every kind of men- tal and corporeal exertion and enterprise, than has been the case since the great convulsion which took place at the Deluge.
But probably the greatest advantage enjoyed by the antediluvians, and which must have been in the high- est degree favorable to their advancement in the arts of life, was the uniformity of language. Nothing could have tended more powerful!}' to maintain, equal- ize, and promote whatever advantages were enjoyed, and to prevent any portion of the human race from degenerating into savage life. See Confusion of Tongues.
The opinion that the old world was acquainted with astronomy (q. v.) is chiefly founded on the ages of Seth and his descendants being particularly set down (Gen. v, G sq), and the precise year, month, and day being stated in which Noah and his family, etc., entered the ark, and made their egress from it (Gen. vii, 11; viii, 13). The distinctions of day and night, and the lunar month, were of course observed; and the thirteenth rotation of the moon, compared with the sun's return to his primary position in the heavens, and the effects produced on the earth by his return, would point out the year. See Month. The variation between the rotations of the moon and sun easily became discover- able from the difference which in a very few years would be exhibited in. the seasons; and hence it may be supposed that, although the calculations of time might be by lunar months or revolutions, yet the re- turn of vegetation would dictate the solar year. See Year. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs, and the simplicity of their employments, favor this conjecture, which receives additional strength from the fact that the Hebrew for year, itilfcj, implies an itera- tion, a return to the same point, a repetition (Gesenius, Thes. Heb. p. 1448) ; and it is also remarkable that the Indians, Chinese, Babylonians, Egyptians, Greeks, and other nations, all deduce their origin from person- ages said to be versed in astronomy. See Time. — The knowledge of zoology (q. v.) which Adam possessed was doubtless imparted to his children ; and we find that Noah was so minutely informed on the subject as to distinguish between clean and unclean beasts, and that his instructions extended to birds of every kind (Gen. vii, 2^1). — A knowledge of some essential principles in botany (q. v.) is shown by the fact that Adam knew how to distinguish " seed-bearing herb" and " tree in which is a seed-bearing fruit," with "every green herb" (Gen. i, 29, 30). The trees of life and of knowledge are the only ones mentioned before the Fall; but in the history of Noah the vine, the olive, and the wood of which the ark was made (Gen. vi, 14 ; viii, 11 ; ix, 20) are spo- ken of in such a manner as clearly to intimate a knowledge of their qualities. — With mineralogy (q. v.) the antediluvians were at least so far acquainted as to distinguish metals ; and in the description of the gar- den of Eden gold and precious stones are noticed (Gen. ii, 12).