Nearly the same thing was found by Colonel Coombs in the _South of India_. Colonel Tod, in his "Hist. Rajapoutana," says: "A drawing, brought by Colonel Coombs from a sculptured column in a cave-temple in the South of India, represents the first pair at the foot of the ambrosial tree, and a _serpent_ entwined among the heavily-laden boughs, presenting to them some of the fruit from his mouth. The tempter appears to be at that part of his discourse, when '----his words, replete with guile, Into her heart too easy entrance won: Fixed on the fruit she gazed.' "_This is a curious subject to be engraved on an ancient Pagan temple._"[16:2] So the Colonel thought, no doubt, but it is not so very curious after all. It is the same myth which we have found--with but such small variations only as time and circumstances may be expected to produce--among different nations, in both the Old and New Worlds. [Illustration: Fig. No. 2] Fig. No. 2, taken from the work of Montfaucon,[16:3] represents one of these ancient Pagan sculptures. Can any one doubt that it is allusive to the myth of which we have been treating in this chapter? That man was originally created a perfect being, and is now only a fallen and broken remnant of what he once was, we have seen to be a piece of _mythology_, not only unfounded in fact, but, beyond intelligent question, proved untrue. What, then, is the significance of the exposure of this myth? What does its loss as a scientific fact, and as a portion of Christian dogma, imply? It implies that with it--although many Christian divines who admit this to be a legend, do not, or do not _profess_, to see it--_must fall the whole Orthodox scheme, for upon this_ MYTH _the theology of Christendom is built_. The doctrine of the _inspiration of the Scriptures_, the _Fall_ of _man_, his _total depravity_, the _Incarnation_, the _Atonement_, the _devil_, _hell_, in fact, the entire theology of the Christian church, falls to pieces with the historical inaccuracy of this story, _for upon it is it built; 'tis the foundation of the whole structure_.[17:1] According to Christian dogma, the Incarnation of Christ Jesus had become necessary, merely _because he had to redeem the evil introduced into the world by the Fall of man_. These two dogmas cannot be separated from each other. _If there was no Fall, there is no need of an atonement, and no Redeemer is required._ Those, then, who consent in recognizing in Christ Jesus a _God_ and _Redeemer_, and who, notwithstanding, cannot resolve upon admitting the story of the Fall of man to be _historical_, should exculpate themselves from the reproach of _inconsistency_. There are a great number, however, in this position at the present day.