Page:Free Opinions, Freely Expressed on Certain Phases of Modern Social Life and Conduct.djvu/327

 But we may take comfort in the fact that the Book of Genesis shows some curious discrepancies. For in the Second Chapter God is represented as making one single man out of the dust of the ground, yet in the very First Chapter of the same Book we read that,—

"God created man in His own image; male and female created he them.

"And God blessed them and said unto them Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

Thus we find that the story of Adam and Eve and the Serpent does not occur till after the creation of mankind (in the plural) and after the Divine order that this same mankind (in the plural) should "replenish the earth and subdue it." No "curse" accompanied this command. On the contrary, it was sanctified by a blessing. "God blessed them." And whether Genesis be taken seriously, or only read as poetic legend founded on some substratum of actual events, the fact remains that "to replenish the earth and subdue it," literally means,—to. The "dominion" of man over the planet he inhabits is not to be gained by sitting down with folded hands and waiting for food to drop into the mouth. It is evident that he was intended to earn his right to live. It is also evident that the blessing of God will be his, if from the first beginnings of conscious intelligence and aptitude he resolutely and honestly sets his shoulder to the wheel.

It is only when we are at work that we are vitally