200 MR. GLADSTONE AND GENESIS V 



of the field. The creation of living beings begins with that of 

 a solitary man ; the next thing that happens is the laying out 

 of the Garden of Eden, and the causing the growth from its soil 

 of every tree " that is pleasant to the sight and good for food" ; 

 the third act is the formation out of the ground of " every beast 

 of the field, and every fowl of the air " ; the fourth and last, 

 the manufacture of the first woman from a rib, extracted from 

 Adam, while in a state of anaesthesia. 



Yet there are people who not only profess to take this 

 monstrous legend seriously, but who declare it to be reconcil- 

 able with the Elohistic account of the creation 1 



