as he did not know that they thought him inspired.

At length the father, said, "Walter, do you know what is meant by the
word 'tree' in that verse?"

"I think I do, father; to me it stands for the word, 'thought,' for
this seems to bring out the spiritual meaning of the verse; for
instance, if we would read the verse this way, 'Every thought that is
pleasant to the sight, i. e., understanding, and good for food, the
thought of life also in the midst of the garden and the thought or
belief in good and evil'; this may not be correct, but it at least
makes it plain to me. And when we remember that Adam and Eve were
allowed to eat of all the trees excepting this tree of knowledge of
good and evil, it seems to me that they were forbidden to believe that
both good and evil were real, in other words, to believe that both
spirit and matter existed; for as soon as they would eat or believed
in materiality the penalty would be death, as they were believing in
something that did not in reality exist. This false belief must in the
end inevitably result in death or annihilation, as it is this false
belief of life as existent in matter, or material body, that dies and
is annihilated, for the real or spiritual man cannot die."

"What do you mean by spiritual man?"

"The Bible says: 'God is omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent.' Let us
define this word omniscient. In a common sense way, 'omni' means all,
and 'scientia' means science, then it would be proper to say, 'God is
all science, and science is perfect intelligence,' for the scientific
reality concerning anything, is the perfect intelligence pertaining
thereto. We can now say, 'God is all intelligence,' the word 'all'