wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God
amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God called
unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he
said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,
because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, Who
told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the
tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not
eat And the man said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be
with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the
Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast
done? and the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I
did eat. And the Lord God said onto the serpent. Because
thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle,
and above every beast of the field: upon thy belly shalt
thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy
life. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman,
and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy
head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.'--GENESIS iii 1-15.

It is no part of my purpose to enter on the critical questions
connected with the story of 'the fall.' Whether it is a legend,
purified and elevated, or not, is of less consequence than what is
its moral and religious significance, and that significance is
unaffected by the answer to the former question. The story
presupposes that primitive man was in a state of ignorant innocence,
not of intellectual or moral perfection, and it tells how that
ignorant innocence came to pass into conscious sin. What are the
stages of the transition?

1. There is the presentation of inducement to evil. The law to which