57 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and intellectual powers, but that there came a " fall," as the re- 

 sult of which came into the world evil, toil, sorrow, and death. 



Nothing could be more natural than such an explanation of 

 the existence of evil, in times when men saw everywhere miracle 

 and nowhere law. It is, under such circumstances, by far the 

 more easy explanation, for it is in accordance with the appear- 

 ances of things : men adopted it just as naturally as they adopt- 

 ed the theory that the Almighty hangs up the stars as lights in 

 the solid firmament above the earth, or trundles the sun behind 

 a high mountain at night, or wheels the planets around the earth, 

 or flings comets as " signs and wonders " to scare a wicked world, 

 or allows evil spirits to control thunder, lightning, and storm, and 

 to cause diseases of body and mind, or that he opens the " win- 

 dows of heaven " to let down " the waters that be above the heav- 

 ens," and thus to give rain upon the earth. 



A belief, then, in a primeval period of innocence, physical per- 

 fection, and intellectual strength, from which men for some fault 

 fell, is perfectly in accordance with what we should expect. 



Among the earliest known records of our race we find this 

 view taking shape in the Chaldean legends of war between the 

 gods, and a fall of man ; both of which seemed necessary to ex- 

 plain the existence of evil. 



In Greek mythology perhaps the best-known statement was 

 made by Hesiod : to him it was revealed, regarding the men of the 

 most ancient times, that they were, at first, " a golden race," that 

 " as gods they were wont to live, with a life void of care, without 

 labor and trouble ; nor was wretched old age at all impending, but 

 ever did they delight themselves out of the reach of all ills, and 

 they died as if overcome by sleep ; all blessings were theirs ; of 

 its own will the fruitful field would bear them fruit, much and 

 ample, and they gladly used to reap the labors of their hands in 

 quietness along with many good things, being rich in flocks and 

 true to the blessed gods." But there came a " fall " caused by hu- 

 man curiosity. Pandora, the first woman created, received a vase 

 which, by divine command, was to remain closed ; but she was 

 tempted to open it, and troubles, sorrow, and sickness in every 

 form escaped into the world, hope alone remaining. 



So, too, in Roman mythological poetry, the well-known picture 

 by Ovid is but one among the many exhibitions of this same be- 

 lief in a primeval golden age — a Saturnian cycle — one of the con- 

 stantly recurring attempts, so universal and so natural in the 

 early history of man, to account for the existence of evil, care, 

 and toil on earth by explanatory myths and legends. 



This view we also find embodied in the sacred* tradition of the 

 Jews, and especially in one of the documents which form the im- 

 pressive poem beginning the books attributed to Moses. As to the 



