Let no woman speak then of the word “obey” insulting her. What if it does? The word “obey” goes deeper. It strikes at the authority of God, and has done all the ages down. And now “woman” rises and says, with a womanly desire to squabble with the man, “I’ll obey man no longer--I’ll obey myself.” And God stands by--the Afterthought. So much for Genesis and the Matrimonial Service. Suppose you and I go our own way and “believe” to please ourselves. Suppose we think Adam and Eve were two little monkeys--not big gorillas, they are so very, very plain. Suppose--no; you are locked in, you _cannot_ get away--suppose, suppose one day Eve felt weak and not at all well, and, instead of getting better, she went on day after day. Then Eve would learn what sadness was--a dull, unintelligible feeling to her, poor little animal--but still a real one. And Adam, being a good little husband as monkey husbands go, would feel in his little monkey heart that Eve was--well, he’d have to scratch his little monkey head because he hadn’t learnt to talk--not even to say that little tiny word called “sad.” Eve’s suffering was the first tiny ray of light on the Dark Path--very tiny, no doubt, but with a tiny influence of refinement. Man’s thumbs developed later. Now listen! Hark! That is thunder cracking over the Silent Forest. See that forked lightning, like a sword flashed into the dense black night. What if a tree falls? Listen the poor cramped souls what they pray for--air--God’s air and light. Adam and Eve--or, ages long before them, great Darwin’s monkey species--who dares presume to laugh? Adam and Eve hidden among the other animals like needles in a haystack--Adam and Eve meaning _man_. Who made them? The God of beauty and love? Oh! tear away that veil and see things as they are. Watch animals--their jealousy, their greed--the way they prey on one another, the monotonous and soulless day. Many are beautiful, some most repulsive. Think seriously about them, and they make you sad--unutterably sad, like their own weird voices in that strange and universal minor key. You say it is because a curse has come upon them--that in the first place they were innocent and gentle too. If it be so, what a disgraceful mull that God omnipotent has made of His creation--within so short a time everything tainted that once was good. Could God so err with more than _human_ foolishness? Could God so err, and pander to the Devil, as, the good books say, unconsciously He has done? Oh, sacrilegious thought! Who made the world? The world of Living Things? Who made it? God, I will grant you--but _which_ God? The God--Gods if you will--of Hell.