SECRETARY'S REPORT. 69 



life also in the midst of the garden ; and the tree of knowledge 

 of good and evil." 



Thus it seems that our forefather Adam was started in life 

 under the most favorable conditions. He was created and 

 started in life as a farmer, and he had presented to him at once 

 a " model farm." I suppose that theologians in general agree 

 that it is the duty of man — in fact, the work of the race — to get 

 back as nearly as possible to that blissful state which Adam 

 enjoyed in Paradise, and it seems to me just as plain that the 

 great effort of agriculture is to bring this earth back as nearly 

 as possible to that only perfect model farm — the Garden of 

 Eden. We have no lengthy description of this garden, but, as 

 in all Bible descriptions, a few bold lines put us in possession of 

 all the information which we need. ^'■And out of the ground 

 made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the 

 sight and good for food. ^^ We learn from this, that utility and 

 beauty were joined together in this great model farm ; in fact, 

 the trees that are pleasant to the sight are mentioned first, as 

 though they predominated, or that beauty was the predominant 

 element of Eden. There was no stint in numbers. Every 

 beautiful and useful tree was found there. There must have 

 been hills clothed with goodly cedars, valleys shaded by lordly 

 oaks, plains fanned by feathery palms, glassy lakes dotted with 

 lilies of alabaster and gold ; the blushing rose and modest 

 violet, delicate fern and tufted moss, all were there ; and mingled 

 with them all were trees and herbs yielding choicest fruits. 



There is no spot like this now in the wide world — ^no spot that 

 approaches it, except where the soil has been subdued by human 

 toil and watered by the sweat of the face. To come back from 

 the contemplation of Eden, to look out upon our earth, is like 

 descending from the giddy, airy heights of poetry to the stern, 

 realities of the common world — like the passage from the 

 roseate dreams of childhood out into the cold, selfish atmosphere 

 of everyday life. 



Eden is known only in history. It is with the rugged earth 

 that we have to do. And notwithstanding the curse of thorns 

 and thistles, of frosts and mildew and blight, there is enough, of 

 fruitfulness and beauty in the uncultivated valleys and. moun- 

 tains to encourage us to labor to subdue and till the earth. 



