should not have been doomed to dine on dust as a penalty for conferring this blessing upon the human race. The second consequence growing out of the act of eating the interdicted fruit appears to have been the acquisition of a knowledge of good and evil; that is, the power of distinguishing between good and evil. But this, so far from being a curse, was an inestimable and indispensable blessing; for, without the attainment of this knowledge, they could not have known that any act was evil, and hence would have been liable to plunge into all manner of crime, pillage, debauchery, murder, &c., until they effected the entire extinction of the human race. The acquisition, then, of the knowledge of the moral difference between good and evil was an invaluable blessing, and no curse at all; and, having been brought about through the agency of the serpent-devil, he should have the credit of it. The third effect produced by plucking and eating the prescribed fruit was the discovery that they were naked. Why they had not made the discovery before is a mystery of godliness. The people of the present age, although presumed to be in a state of degeneracy, if not total depravity, do not require the use of their eyes to know when they are naked; but it seems, that, before the fall in a state of moral perfection, such knowledge could only be acquired through the optic nerves. Hence "the perfection of our first parents," so often spoken of and lauded by the orthodox world, must simply have been the perfection of ignorance; and it is true, if their history is true, that they were most consummately ignorant until they were enlightened by the serpent. They were too ignorant to clothe themselves. God Almighty had to forsake the throne of heaven, and come down to earth, to make garments of goatskins for them, before they could be sufficiently habilitated to go abroad, or admit company. Their two sons, however, were the only company they were permitted to enjoy at that time. And one of these turned out to be a murderer; and, having killed his only brother, he fled to the land of Nod, and married a wife, although, according to the "inspired account," his mother was the only woman then living. It seems strange, under such circumstances, that he should marry a wife when there were no women to make wives of. After he had killed his brother, and repented of it, a mark was set upon him, that "whosoever found him should not slay him." But how could this "whosoever" know what the mark meant? And who was this "whosoever," when he himself had killed off the whole human race, excepting his father and mother? And we presume they would not be likely to slay their own and only son if there were no mark set upon him to prevent it. Up to this period the conduct of the serpent-devil had been very respectful, and every act performed had resulted in a direct benefit to the human family. Even his conduct towards Mother Eve seems to have been marked by politeness; for he served her with