An excellent example is furnished in the account of the mob at Ephesus: "Some, therefore, cried one thing and some another; for the assembly was confused; _and the more part knew not wherefore they were come together_." When Sidney Smith speaks of "distressing accidents," we are reminded that an exceedingly "distressing accident" happened in the very first family of which we have any record--the family that started in Eden. Aside from any question as to the literal truth of the story, nothing can exceed the simplicity and naturalness with which the writer has described the culprits and their excuses. The first thing they did after their transgression was to hide. The supreme and perpetual folly of guilt is to imagine that it can be hid when the voice of the Lord God is heard in the garden. "And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?" The culprit creeps forth from his hiding-place and stammers, "I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." "Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?" Now the guilty secret is out and Adam pleads in extenuation, "The woman that thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I did eat." It was no fault of mine. That _woman_ was to blame--the woman, O Lord, remember, that _thou_ gavest to be with me. Is not a little of the responsibility thine also, O Lord? A touch of nature! "As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be!" But Eve will not bear all the blame. She also is ready with her excuse: "The serpent beguiled me and I did eat." Another remove in the location of the responsibility. If we can forget all that theology has put into this story and look on it simply as a bit of literature, it is a charming description of the way in which we mortals disclaim accountability for our deeds. "And oftentimes excusing of a fault, Doth make the fault worse by the excuse; As patches set upon a little breach, Discredit more in hiding of the fault, Then did the fault before it was so patched." Job has expressed his contempt for Adam's conduct in Eden by invoking upon himself even greater ills than he was then suffering, if he followed that disgraceful example,--"If I covered my transgression as Adam, by hiding my iniquity in my bosom." In magnificent scorn of Adam's hiding from the Lord and laying his guilt upon another, Job exclaims, "Behold, my desire is that the Almighty _would_ answer me!" and avows that "he would declare unto him the number of his steps, and as a prince would go near unto him,"--not skulk away from his presence among trees and bushes. The low estimation in which Job holds Adam suggests that the old Hebrew who wrote the story in Genesis, may have intended to hold up that primal man in a humorous light.