I am not new,[21] as many think, but old and full of years, knowing the nature of Things, the Varieties of Creatures, the mutability of Time. I know the vacillations of the Heart of Man, in part by the experience of Ages, in part by subtlety of Nature, in part by the Merit of Grace. In the beginning I dwelt in the Paradise of God, where Man was naked. Or rather, I was in Man, and of his Essence when he was naked, walking with him in that spacious Paradise, fearing nothing, doubting nothing, thinking no Evil. I thought to have stayed with him forever, for he had been created by the Most High, just, good, and wise, and placed in a most beautiful and delectable Place. I was joyful exceeding, entertaining him at all Times, for possessing Nothing, he belonged wholly to God. But, woe is me, he succumbed to Evil, which had been unknown from the beginning of the Creation, and the unhappy Spirit of Evil, who, through Vainglory, had lost Wisdom, entered the body of a Serpent because he could not inhabit Heaven, and treacherously assailed Man, that like himself he might become a transgressor of the Divine Law. Unhappy Man, giving ear unto his evil Counsellor, acquiesced and consented, and having forgotten God, his Creator, followed the Example of the first Transgressor. In the beginning, says Holy Writ, Man was naked but not {Gen. ii. 25.} ashamed, for he was perfect in innocence. But having sinned, he knew that he was naked, and being ashamed, he hastily made himself an apron of the leaves of the fig-tree.[22]