'----his words, replete with guile,
Into her heart too easy entrance won:
Fixed on the fruit she gazed.'

"_This is a curious subject to be engraved on an ancient Pagan
temple._"[16:2]

So the Colonel thought, no doubt, but it is not so very curious after
all. It is the same myth which we have found--with but such small
variations only as time and circumstances may be expected to
produce--among different nations, in both the Old and New Worlds.

[Illustration: Fig. No. 2]

Fig. No. 2, taken from the work of Montfaucon,[16:3] represents one of
these ancient Pagan sculptures. Can any one doubt that it is allusive to
the myth of which we have been treating in this chapter?

That man was originally created a perfect being, and is now only a
fallen and broken remnant of what he once was, we have seen to be a
piece of _mythology_, not only unfounded in fact, but, beyond
intelligent question, proved untrue. What, then, is the significance of
the exposure of this myth? What does its loss as a scientific fact, and
as a portion of Christian dogma, imply? It implies that with
it--although many Christian divines who admit this to be a legend, do
not, or do not _profess_, to see it--_must fall the whole Orthodox
scheme, for upon this_ MYTH _the theology of Christendom is built_. The
doctrine of the _inspiration of the Scriptures_, the _Fall_ of _man_,
his _total depravity_, the _Incarnation_, the _Atonement_, the _devil_,
_hell_, in fact, the entire theology of the Christian church, falls to
pieces with the historical inaccuracy of this story, _for upon it is it
built; 'tis the foundation of the whole structure_.[17:1]

According to Christian dogma, the Incarnation of Christ Jesus had become
necessary, merely _because he had to redeem the evil introduced into the
world by the Fall of man_. These two dogmas cannot be separated from
each other. _If there was no Fall, there is no need of an atonement, and
no Redeemer is required._ Those, then, who consent in recognizing in
Christ Jesus a _God_ and _Redeemer_, and who, notwithstanding, cannot
resolve upon admitting the story of the Fall of man to be _historical_,
should exculpate themselves from the reproach of _inconsistency_. There
are a great number, however, in this position at the present day.

Although, as we have said, many Christian divines do not, or do not
profess to, see the force of the above argument, there are many who do;
and they, rega