ORIGIN OF MORAL EVIL 



319 



children playing in an orchard ; who were never told 

 before not to do anything. 



Adam and Eve were non-moral before ; but the 

 moment they receive the command, " Thou shalt not eat 

 of the fruit of the tree," potential morality and immorality 

 is present ; so that what would have been a non-moral 

 act becomes an immoral one. 



Law, therefore, is the indirect cause of guilt and sin, 

 by pronouncing certain previously non-moral acts to be 

 immoral. 



It is not that man " fell," but that his eyes were 

 holden till he realised, as soon as he experienced it, what 

 would be the effect of violation of law on himself. 



The story, then, represents t/ie Discovery of Conscience 

 after the pronouncement of law, the possibility of guilt 

 or sin, with its concomitant shame. 



With the powerful aid of a " conscience towards God," 

 constantly warning and shaming man, he has learnt how 

 he is now able to rise to a divine height ; though he is 

 equally conscious that he may sink lower than the beasts 

 that perish ; for without law man would for ever remain 

 on the same dead level of animal non-morality, when 

 nothing is good, nothing is evil. There would be no Con- 

 trast and no need for Volition. 



Let us then consider this all-important Law of Con- 

 trasts, which supplies the basis both for man's moral 

 elevation as well as for his possible degradation, since 

 no evolution ever takes place without a possible devolu- 

 tion or degradation in some other direction. 



A most important result of man's powers of abstract 

 reasoning, and of his consciousness of the power of 

 choosing, is the origin of this conception of evil — 

 whether that word be his estimate of physical occurrences 

 without, or what is called " sin," within himself. 



