Imagine Adam feeling this want of companionship as the beasts of earth in their pristine beauty pass before him.  There are those who mate with a horse or a dog.  Who make a pet of a brute, and, ignoring their higher relations, live for their lower nature.  We know that animals can be brought to do almost anything but talk, and some birds have the gift of speech.  It was doubtless true of Eden.  The serpent’s talking did not surprise Eve.

Perhaps Adam may have found animals that could have kept him company.  Yet he could find none who could meet his want as a helpmeet.  Milton has fancifully described Adam expressing his want to the Infinite.  It grew upon him.  Then he has pictured him asleep, and seeing, as in a trance, the rib, with cordial spirits warm, formed and fashioned with his hands, until

  “Under his forming hands a creature grew,
  Manlike, but different sex, so lovely fair
  That what seemed fair in all the world seemed now
  Mean, or in her summed up, in her contained,
  And in her looks, which from that time infused
  Sweetness into my heart unfelt before,
  And into all things from her air inspired
  The spirit of love and amorous delight.”

Then she disappeared.  The dream haunted him in his waking hours.  In the gallery of the Louvre there is a picture of Henry IV becoming entranced by the picture of his future wife, and next to it is the picture of the proud man being married to the woman whose face in the picture had once captivated his fancy.  Those pictures were the realization of the one described in Milton’s verse.  Adam saw in Eve the realization of his dream, and was happy when he welcomed to his embrace this first gift of God, which met his want and answered his prayer.  God created man not only a social being but an intellectual being.  A beast can mate with beasts.  They do so.  A distinguished writer says, “the family relation is almost universal among the higher classes of animals.”  Adam’s immortal nature longed for a kindred spirit.  One to commune with, one to love, one to guide, one to look at life from another standpoint, one whose opinions should be diverse, and yet alike in difference, one to help in all the affairs of life, not only for the propagation of the species, but to provide things useful and comfortable for him, and like himself in temper, in disposition, and destiny.  One to whom God shall be a loving Father, and heaven a common home.  One with whom soul can join with soul in worship and love.  A kindred spirit.  A spirit having a common love, a common purpose, a common aspiration, and a common interest.

This longing for companionship was the earliest recorded emotion of the soul.  It comes earliest to us and stays longest.  In childhood, very often, instinct and desire rule wisely, and matches formed in heaven are recognized in life’s morning on earth far oftener than we are accustomed to think.  This longing never ceases.  The child wants companionship, and old age, shattered and broken, feels the need of this loving support which God provides in the opposite sex quite as much as does the youthful heart.  Our perfect humanity is made up of the two, and is not complete without this union.