ancestors to the dawn of creation.



[FN#3] Daniel Cady Eaton, Professor of Botany.



As out of this allegory grows the doctrines of original sin, the fall
of man, and woman the author of all our woes, and the curses on the
serpent, the woman, and the man; the Darwinian theory of the gradual
growth of the race from a lower to a higher type of animal life, is
more hopeful and encouraging. However, as our chief interest is in
woman's part in the drama, we are equally pleased with her attitude,
whether as a myth in an allegory, or as the heroine of an historical
occurrence.

In this prolonged interview, the unprejudiced reader must be impressed
with the courage, the dignity, and the lofty ambition of the woman. The
tempter evidently had a profound knowledge of human nature, and saw at
a glance the high character of the person he met by chance in his walks
in the garden. He did not try to tempt her from the path of duty by
brilliant jewels, rich dresses, worldly luxuries or pleasures, but with
the promise of knowledge, with the wisdom of the Gods.

Like Socrates or Plato, his powers of conversation and asking
puzzling questions, were no doubt marvellous, and he roused in the
woman that intense thirst for knowledge, that the simple pleasures of
picking flowers and talking with Adam did not satisfy. Compared with
Adam she appears to great advantage through the entire drama.