Created to be “the image and glory of God,” Adam and Eve had received endowments not unworthy of their high destiny. Graceful and symmetrical in form, regular and beautiful in feature, their countenances glowing with the tint of health and the light of joy and hope, they bore in outward resemblance the likeness of their Maker. Nor was this likeness manifest in the physical nature only. Every faculty of mind and soul reflected the Creator’s glory. Endowed with high mental and spiritual gifts, Adam and Eve were made but “little lower than the angels,”[11] that they might not only discern the wonders of the visible universe, but comprehend moral responsibilities and obligations. [Sidenote: _The Schoolroom_] “The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden.”[12] Here, amidst the beautiful scenes of nature untouched by sin, our first parents were to receive their education. [Sidenote: _The Teacher_] In His interest for His children, our heavenly Father personally directed their education. Often they were visited by His messengers, the holy angels, and from them received counsel and instruction. Often as they walked in the garden in the cool of the day they heard the voice of God, and face to face held communion with the Eternal. His thoughts toward them were “thoughts of peace, and not of evil.”[13] His every purpose was their highest good. [Sidenote: _Course of Study_] To Adam and Eve was committed the care of the garden, “to dress it and to keep it.”[14] Though rich in all that the Owner of the universe could supply, they were not to be idle. Useful occupation was appointed them as a blessing, to strengthen the body, to expand the mind, and to develop the character. [Sidenote: _Original Research_] The book of nature, which spread its living lessons before them, afforded an exhaustless source of instruction and delight. On every leaf of the forest and stone of the mountains, in every shining star, in earth and sea and sky, God’s name was written. With both the animate and the inanimate creation,—with leaf and flower and tree, and with every living creature, from the leviathan of the waters to the mote in the sunbeam,—the dwellers in Eden held converse, gathering from each the secrets of its life. God’s glory in the heavens, the innumerable worlds in their orderly revolutions, “the balancings of the clouds,”[15] the mysteries of light and sound, of day and night,—all were objects of study by the pupils of earth’s first school.