Page:The Garden of Eden (Doughty).djvu/85

Rh not believe in God, for these senses of mine have never seen Him, felt Him or touched Him. I believe only what sense and natural science prove. There may be plenty of undiscovered truths, but I rest my faith only in what I scientifically know.

Very moral men may, after this manner, be sensualists. But the effect of such sensuous reasoning is demoralizing in the extreme. Pride may keep the strong sensual man from moral degradation. But when you efface from the mind spiritual intelligence, and substitute natural reason; or when you darken those spiritual lights, which are the stars of its higher consciousness penetrating all dark places with spiritual discernment, you take away that which gives this world its only life and hope. Then the man of weak mind, or he who has no stay of pride, sinks into dissipation and debauchery; this world becomes his all in all; its money, fame or pleasure, his only hope and joy; himself and his own gratification the only things worth living for. The Lord, the divine Sun, is blotted from his firmament; beyond the grave there is naught for him but darkness; to make the most of this world is his supreme purpose. So the serpent—type of the sensual nature—as monitor and guide, is the world's ruin.

What wonder, then, that in olden times, when he once gained the ear of those who dwelt in Eden, he advised them to their fall. Subtle he