Page:Anecdotescatechi00spiruoft.djvu/78

 was silent,  and  looked  abashed. “ You will  never  be wise,”  his  mother  said  to  him,  “ if  you  do  not  believe in the  Creator. The whole  world  will  be  an  inexplicable puzzle  to  you  and  an  enigma. Believe in  God, and you  will  have  the  key  to  that  enigma. Then only will  you  acquire  true  wisdom.”  The  hen  indisputably existed  before  the  egg,  for  the  hen  lays  the egg, and  has  to  hatch  it  if  the  young  bird  is  to  come out of  it. Therefore God  created  the  first  hen.

''Q. Were  Adam  and  Eve  innocent  and  holy  when they  came  from  the  hand  of  God? ''

''A. Adam  and  Eve  were  innocent  and  holy  when they  came  from  the  hand  of  God. ''

Original justice  consisted  of  a sound  mind  in  a sound  body;  of  a perfect  subjection  of  the  lower parts of  creation  to  the  higher,  of  man’s  lower  to his  higher  nature;  and  of  the  complete  harmony thus established  between  creatures  and  man,  between man’s body  and  soul,  and  between  man  and  God. Crantor, a Greek  philosopher  who  lived  about  three hundred years  before  Christ,  relates  that  one  day  the divinities, Wealth,  Pleasure,  Honor,  Health,  and Virtue, suddenly  appeared  before  the  throng  at  the Olympic games  and  asked  the  judges  of  the  Areopagus to  decide  which  of  them  most  favorably  influenced man’s happiness. Wealth dazzled  for  a moment the judges’  eyes,  but  Pleasure  soon  showed  that  he was  only  a means  to  her  as  an  end. Honor claimed