teousness; capable of fellowship, unity, with God; and capable of
progress, improvement, without limits, of life without end, and of
happiness without bounds.

All this, which is the perfection of true philosophy, the sum of all
true wisdom and knowledge, is presented in the most striking,
astounding, and intelligible form in this second, or supplementary
account of creation. Duty is defined in the clearest manner. It is
enjoined in the plainest terms. The results of transgression are
foretold with all fidelity. The great principle is revealed that
righteousness is life and happiness, and that sin is misery and death.
And man is left to his choice.

Here we have the substance, the elements, of all knowledge, of all law,
of all duty, of all retribution. We have the principles of the divine
government. We have the substance of all history. We have in substance,
the lessons, the warnings, the counsels, the encouragements, the
prophecies and revelations of all times and of all worlds. The tendency
of the whole story is to make us feel that righteousness is the one
great, unchanging and eternal good; and that sin, unchecked indulgence,
is the one great, eternal, and unchanging curse. The spirit of the
story, its drift, its aim, is _holiness_ from first to last. The writer
is moved throughout by the Holy Spirit--the Spirit of truth and
righteousness--the Spirit of God. We see it, we feel it, in every part.
We want no proof of the fact in the shape of miracle; the proof is in
the story itself. It is not a matter of dispute; it is a matter of plain
unquestionable fact. And that the story is essentially, morally, and
eternally true, is proved by all the events of history, by all the facts
of consciousness, and by the laws and constitution of universal nature.

And in the history of man's first sin as here given, and in the account
of its effects, and in the conduct of God to the sinning pair, I find,
not the monster fictions of an immoral and blasphemous theology, but the
most important elements of moral, religious, and physical science. And
instead of feeling tempted to ridicule the document, I am constrained to
gaze on it with the highest admiration and the profoundest reverence for
its amazing wisdom.

As to whether the account of the creation of the man and the woman, and
the story of the forbidden fruit, and of the serpent, and of the tree of
life, are to be taken literally or allegorically, I have no concern at
present