Page:The Garden of Eden (Doughty).djvu/113

Rh reason must admit an act to be a duty, before we are willing to do it. It is the only way back to Eden.

"And unto Adam he said." This is the authorized version, but a mistranslation. It should read, "Unto the man (Ish—the man male) he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto thy wife:" because thou, the once God-like intellect, hast listened to the suggestions of the proprium, "and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it," that is, hast drawn the nourishment of thy soul from self and sense and science—"cursed is the ground for thy sake"—miserable and wretched and degraded is thy mind; "in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;" that is, with trouble and affliction, vexation and disappointment, sin and sorrow shalt thou pursue thy way, as the legitimate result of thy selfish life, so long as that state endures; "thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee;" that is, evils and falsities shall be the fruits of thy mental condition; "and thou shalt eat of the herb of the field,"—the smallest and least consequential of spiritual conception shall be thy mental food; "in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return to the ground; " that is, with disgust and loathing shalt thou receive the true bread of life offered thee by the Lord, until finally thou shalt fall back completely into thine earthly nature;