The Adam of Genesis 287 



Eve was a part of Adam's life and being, with him- 

 self constituting the unit called man; while all 

 others represent the wife as an instrument and a 

 chattel. Monogamy constitutes perfect manhood, 

 while polygamy represents a monstrosity, a hydra. 

 When I see a pair of birds, each bearing its part in 

 sheltering and rearing their young, I say they are 

 no longer of the lower animals. They have risen 

 above a large portion of the human race in the scale 

 of moral being, and have a better claim on the boon 

 of immortality. 



The knowledge of good and evil is the summa- 

 tion of all knowledge — the one knowledge to which 

 every discovery of fact, truth, or their inter-rela- 

 tions is a contribution. Of the highest value, it 

 demands the greatest price. The author of the 

 story of Adam depicts very clearly the consequences 

 of the eating of the tree of the knowledge of good 

 and evil. Adam could no longer dwell in Paradise. 

 The boughs of the trees of the garden refused to 

 bend down to his hand with fruits adequate to his 

 increasing wants and desires. Nature nurtured 

 him as a babe, but cast him off when he became a 

 man, not in wrath, but in love; not in disgust, but 

 with a mother's wisdom and pride in her wonderful 

 child. She had been looking forward to and pre- 

 paring for this "far-off divine event" through many 

 toilsome and patient ages. She had tamed the 

 earth of its rocky savagery, and reduced it to undu- 

 lating hills and fertile and lovely valleys. She had 



