and that they were greatly inferior in morals and intellect to the least-developed minds of the present age; and consequently man's course has been upward, and not downward. There has been no falling, but a gradual rising, in both the moral and intellectual scale. It shows that man was at the very foot of the ladder at the commencement of his moral and intellectual career,--that he was flat on his back in the ditch; and, consequently, there was no lower place to fall to. The first proposition, then, is shown to be false,--that man originally occupied a high moral position, and that he was in a state of moral purity and perfection. The second proposition--that of man's fall and moral degeneracy--is likewise shown to be false by the same facts; for, if he was never in a state of moral purity and perfection, then it is evident he never could have fallen from such a state. It would be superfluous, then, to attempt to show that man never fell, after having shown that he never occupied a high moral position to fall from. He could only fall in the sense the Scotchman did, who stated he fell up a well sixty feet in a bucket. It is settled, then, geologically, scientifically, and demonstrably, that man never fell in a moral sense. We will now proceed to present what is presumed and assumed to be the scriptural exposition of man's original condition and fall. We are told in the first chapter of Genesis, that, when God had completed the work of creation, he pronounced it all, not only good, but "very good," which indicates a state of perfection; but it appears the words were hardly out of his mouth till a very bad being, called a serpent, came crawling into the garden on his back, to furnish practical evidence that Moses' God was mistaken in having pronounced every thing so very "good." We have to assume that he came into the garden of paradise on his back, because the reverse mode of traveling was not adopted until after the fall; that is, till after he was doomed to that mode of travel as a punishment for having tempted and beguiled Mother Eve to try her new molars and incisors on some fruit (supposed to be pippins) hanging on a tree, which, it appears, underwent the rapid process of blossoming, and bearing fruit that ripened in a few hours after it was planted. And thus the serpent, although a senseless reptile, committed the first sin,--the first violation of moral law. The first question that naturally arises here is, Why was not the fence around the garden of paradise made snake-proof, so as to keep his snakeship out? Or shall we presume the gate was left open, and that he entered in that way? This, however, would indicate a blundering carelessness on the part of Jehovah, which we dare not assume. Another question arising here is, Why was not the angel with the flaming sword, which, we are told, was placed over the door or gateway to guard it from intruders,--why was he not placed there sooner? Why was he not placed