den, sternly enjoining Adam and Eve not to eat of its
fruit under pain of death. Now the poor woman knew nothing of death and
could not understand what a dreadful punishment it was; and there was
the fruit dangling before her eyes every hour of the day. Is it any
wonder that she brooded incessantly on the one thing forbidden, that her
woman's curiosity was irresistably piqued by it, and that at last her
longing grew so intense that she exclaimed, "Dear me! I can't refrain
any longer. Let the consequences be what they will, I must have a bite."
God made the woman; he knew her weakness; and he must have known that
the plan he devised to test her obedience was the most certain trap that
could be invented. Jehovah played with poor Eve just as a cat plays with
a mouse. She had free-will, say the theologians. Yes, and so has the
mouse a free run. But the cat knows she can catch it again, and finish
it off when she is tired of playing.

Not only did God allow Eve's curiosity to urge her on to sin, he also
permitted the serpent, "more subtil than any beast of the field," to
supplement its action. This wily creature is popularly supposed to have
been animated on the occasion by the Devil himself; although, as we
shall explain in another _Romance_ entitled "The Bible Devil," the book
of Genesis makes not even the remotest allusion to such a personage.
If, however, the tempter _was_ the Devil, what chance had the poor woman
against his seductive wiles? And even if he was only a serpent, he was
very "subtil" as we are told, and able to talk like a book, and we know
that these creatures have fatal powers of fascination. Surely Mother Eve
was heavily handicapped. God might have given her fair play, and left
her to fight the battle without furnishing auxiliaries to the strong
side.

The serpent, we have said, could converse in human speech. His
conversation and his conduct will be dealt with in the _Romance_ just
referred to. Suffice it here to say that he plainly told the woman that
God was a liar. "He," said the tempter, "has said ye shall surely die if
ye touch the fruit of this tree. Don't believe it. I tell you, ye shall
not surely die." What could poor Eve think? In addition to her native
curiosity here was another incentive to disobedience. Which of these two
spoke the truth? There was only one way of deciding. She stretched forth
her hand, plucked an apple, and began to eat. And immediately, says
Milton,

"Earth felt t