ht tell them that at one time a man got mad at another man, and
caught three hundred foxes, and set fire to their tails (they standing
still the while), and then turned them loose into the other man's corn,
and burned it all up. If they don't know much about foxes, and have
never experimented in burning live hair, they may think it is a pretty
good story. But I would not tell them that the man who got up that
torch-light procession was a good man. I would not tell them that he was
one of God's most intimate friends; because even if they think he had a
right to burn his enemy's crops, I don't believe that any right-minded
child would think it was fair to the foxes.

THE FRUIT OF THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE.

Some time ago I went to hear a noted minister, who preached a sermon
about the "fruit of the tree of knowledge" to a congregation composed,
as most congregations are, chiefly of women. Yet his sermon was a
monument of insult, bigotry, and dogmatic intolerance that would have
done honor to a witch-hunter several centuries ago. That women will
subject themselves to such insults week after week, and that there are
still men who will condescend to offer them, is a sad commentary upon
their self-respect as well as upon the degrading influence of their
religion.

Why will they listen to such nonsense? Perhaps woman was made of a rib
and so should be held as flesh and blood only, devoid of intellect. But
I don't know that she was; I was not there to see, and, in fact, none of
my family were; and since they tell us that the only gentleman present
upon that interesting occasion was asleep, I don't know who could have
told the story in the first place.

It is always a surprise to me that women will sit, year after year, and
be told that, because of a story as silly and childish as it is unjust,
she is responsible for all the ills of life; that because, forsooth,
some thousands of years ago a woman was so horribly wicked as to eat an
apple, she must and should occupy a humble and penitent position, and
remain forever subject to the dictates of ecclesiastical pretenders. It
is so silly, so childish, that for people of sense to accept it seems
almost incredible.

According to the story, she was deceived. According to the story, she
believed that she was doing a thing which would give greater knowledge
and a broader life, and she had the courage to try for it. According to
the story, she first evinced the desire to be more an