It allows them an all but unlimited liberty of indulgence.
They may eat of the fruit of every tree in the garden but one.
Indulgence must have its limits somewhere, or there could be no virtue,
and without virtue there could be no true happiness.
Law, trial, and temptation are all essential to virtue and
righteousness. Here they are all supplied; supplied so far as we can
see, in their best and most considerate forms. No law is given to the
lower animals. No self-denial is required of them. They are incapable
of virtue or righteousness, and are therefore left lawless. A _child_
left to himself would bring his mother to shame; a man left to himself
would rush headlong to destruction. But birds and beasts do best when
left to themselves, or when left to the law in their own natures. Their
instincts, or God's own impulses, urge them ever in the right direction,
and secure to them the kind and amount of happiness they are capable of
enjoying. They are incapable of virtue, so they are made incapable of
vice. They cannot share the highest pleasures; they shall not be exposed
therefore to the bitterest pains. Man is capable of both virtue and
vice, and he must either rise to the one or sink to the other. He cannot
stay midway with the lower animals.
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