100 Observations on the Natural History 



From this serious part of my letter, you are not to an- 

 ticipate a formal discourse on theology. This excerp- 

 tion from sacred history is at present necessary to, and 

 may have an advantageous place in, our discussion. 

 Were it a light matter which at this moment solicits 

 our attention, I should most sedulously have avoided 

 an appeal to that authority, the sacredness of which ren- 

 ders it inaccessible, either in language or writing, ex- 

 cept when in our solemn, serious meditation, in the 

 stillness of spiritual contemplation, we approach, with a 

 trembling dread and awful apprehension, to enquire into 

 its momentous doctrines, to hear the great ever-living 

 Entity unfold, in justice, wisdom, and celestial dignity, 

 his irreversible purposes to deciduous man ! 



It is palpable, and bears with irresistible conviction on 

 the mind, that the above address to Eve was not direct- 

 ed and limited to her as an individual ; it was addressed 

 to her with a meaning diffusive and general, terminable 

 only by the limits of her descendants ; as woman ; as 

 the mother of all human females. 



This heavy denunciation was fulminated against wo- 

 man, in the same spirit, under the same circumstances, 

 and for the same high crime, as against Adam was 

 launched the terrible menace, " pulvis es, et in pulve- 

 rem redibis." 



This was uttered against Adam as man, the father 

 and head of all living. Both were levelled against our 

 kind, and not restricted to early ages, particular nations, 

 or certain individuals. A few men, by miracle or spc- 



